The Rural BC Community Award is being presented to The Nisga’a Valley Health Authority (NVHA) for its innovative work in developing regionally-based solutions addressing local healthcare needs.
The NVHA is a community-led health authority serving the needs of the four communities within Nisga’a Valley—Gitlaxt’aamiks, Gitwinksihlkw, Laxgalts’ap, and Gingolx—as well as outreach services to support Nisga’a Nation members living away from home. Over the past five years, NVHA and community partners have made great strides to improve services and ensure they continue to evolve with the needs of the communities.
From establishing full-scope rural primary and emergency care, to creating a comprehensive interdisciplinary team of allied health services including traditional wellness workers, NVHA is ensuring that community members have access to the care they need.
NVHA services have expanded greatly from 2020 to now. A primary achievement for NVHA has been the successful recruitment and retention of physicians integrated into the community. With all physician services filled, there are regular clinics in each of the four communities, and there is 24/7/365 coverage of emergency and on-call services. This contrasts with previous periods, where there used to be sporadic locum coverage. They went from 29 individual physicians providing services to fill four full-time positions, to, in 2024, 14 physicians filling five and a half full-time positions. This achievement has enhanced continuity of care and is contributing to increased trust in health services among the community.
In addition to physician recruitment and retention, NVHA, through partnership with the Pacific Northwest Divisions of Family Practice, Kitselas Nation, Kitsumkalum Nation, Tahltan Nation, and Northern Health, worked on the co-creation of the Coast Mountain Primary Care Network. Through this, they have recruited: a full-time occupational therapist, a kinesiologist, and a dietician for Nisga’a Valley communities.
They also tackled an issue that was investigated at the community level. In community consultations, there was significant concern about early deaths and morbidity from heart attacks and strokes and a QI (quality improvement) initiative found that over 40% of adults in Nisga’a Valley had metabolic syndrome, a group of conditions that increase the risk of heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes. One Nisga’a Elder relayed her experience participating in the CHANGE program in another province to address her metabolic syndrome. In response, the NVHA partnered with Metabolic Syndrome Canada to become the first pilot site in BC for the CHANGE BC program which is a one-year longitudinal program for patients with metabolic syndrome. Patients get weekly access to both a kinesiologist and a dietician so they can be supported through long-term lifestyle change.
Dr. Christie Chan, Medical Director at NVHA, said: “All of this progress has only been made possible because of partnerships we’ve made in the region.”
Another area of innovation and improvement in the Nisga’a Valley has been the creation of a local emergency medical transport (EMT) team. Dr. Chan said it had changed lives. “This was a project that was born out of necessity because BCEHS had been struggling in the region to recruit enough crews,” she explained. “Because of that, we were seeing extremely lengthy wait times, 12, 24 hours-plus to medevac patients to a higher level of care. So we partnered with BC to train emergency medical responders locally in the community and to create a Nisga’a EMT team, so that people here could have, timely emergency medical transport to a higher level of care.”
Corinne McKay, Chief Executive Officer of the NVHA, said it was gratifying to see the significant improvement in health services. She added: “We have a population that is still affected by the issues encountered in residential schools. And it’s not just those individuals; it’s the generational trauma. And we know that there is more that we can do. And from where I am in the organization, I know that there’s great potential to do more.
“We are grateful for the amazing work that’s been done to support those that are meeting treatment, those that are needing support.
“We have a land-based healing program where we’re trying to support those that want to learn about the ways that we process foods, the ways that we prepared our traditional clothing, the ways that we gathered food. So there’s amazing work being done by employees that are very committed to the work. It’s exciting to see the many different offerings.”
