RECONCILING INUIT ELDERS’ LONG-TERM CARE NEEDS

EARTH-SKY VERTEBRAL SPINES AND UMBILICAL CORDS

Abstract

Inuit Elders who have chronic health needs are removed and relocated to
distant non-Inuit communities and institutions for long-term palliative and
hospice care. There is an obvious systemic problem where governments
with limited funding, in harsh and complex environs, are unable to
provide the requisite health care, housing, and other social services and
infrastructure that Inuit communities and people direly need. This essay
seeks to describe the tragic irony the system of Inuit Elder long-term
residential care represents. Reminiscent of Residential Schools, Inuit
only can best judge how well they have progressed or achieved their
goals of self-determination and self-governance.