New report shows the disease has reached an all-time high within Canada’s First Nations communities, impact on children is concerning.

A first-of-its-kind, First Nations-specific report, co-authored by Queen’s University professor Michael Green, shows the number of First Nations people in Ontario living with diabetes is at an all-time high at 14.1 per cent.

According to the report, developed jointly by the Chiefs of Ontario (COO) and ICES, the increase is particularly concerning as there is a rising, disproportionate number of First Nations children affected by diabetes.

Low back pain is a common experience. An estimated 75-85% of people will experience some form of back pain during their lifetime. For the majority, it will improve quickly, but about half will experience recurrences within a year. For many, low back pain can lead to suffering and disability that interferes with participation in usual life roles and activities. In fact, Global burden of disease studies provide evidence that low back pain is the leading contributor to years lived with disability worldwide.

When Melissa Spadafora and Shannon Greer were given an assignment to develop a method to recruit young people to nursing in their final year of the Undergraduate Nursing Accelerated Standing Track (AST) program, they didn’t expect the assignment to turn into a passion project.

For many of us, it’s easy to take for granted the daily activities that can be performed without difficulty. Most of us never think twice about our ability to cook dinner, wash the dishes, have a shower, or write an email.

But for those who experience difficulties performing daily tasks, the impact can be significant.

This spring, Thomas Dymond, a medical student here at Queen’s, requested a change to the way that students do their upper year clerkships. He asked to complete his 4-month longitudinal integrated clerkship in the Indigenous community of Akwesasne, under the guidance of Dr. Ojistoh Horn, a Mohawk family physician.

Thomas, who is Mi’kmaq from the Bear River First Nation in Nova Scotia, hasn’t always found his path through medical school to be easy. Last year, he took time away from school because of stress, and began to feel uncertain about whether he would complete his MD degree.

Here at the Faculty of Health Sciences, we are working with indigenous partners to answer the Calls to Action from the Truth and Reconciliation. You can read about how we’re doing in our progress report. This work is ongoing and multi-faceted, and it includes championing talks by leaders in Indigenous Medicine, such as Dr. Makokis.