Today was
probably one of the easiest transitions back to school/work than I’ve ever had, so
I’m glad to have the time to write. A lot of what I learned today was about how
preventing disease and healthy communities starts with healthy children (starting in
pregnancy). At work, I was reading through a report from Northern Health about growing
up healthy in our region. It talked
about a lot of the social things that affect our health like education/employment,
food/housing, and social supports (called social determinants of health), and about which things we are doing well and which need to be improved.
As I was reading
through, I was thinking about what aspects of this are and are not relevant to
our cultural community. In many ways, I have been asking myself these questions
for years… What issues is our Sikh community facing and how do we address them? When we were planning programs directed at gang violence prevention in
the South Asian program, or talking about diabetes, we had to address how
specific aspects of our culture played into the issue at hand. I remember once when
I was handing out healthy cooking DVDs about how to make healthier dhaal, one
of the Aunties was insulted and said “but I already know how to cook!” It
taught me that we have to think in a difference lens for different populations.
The report I read
talked about how it’s important for a child to have their basic needs met
(food, housing, education, childcare), emotional needs met (feel safe, valued,
loved), and participate in the community (through activities in nature,
cultural, and organized activities). I thought about what we do really well in
our cultural community. One of the sections in the report was about improvement is needed in destigmatizing supports for parents. For the Sikh community, I think we good job of supporting pregnant moms and new moms. Particularly,there is a recognition that new moms need help, and either
families come from far to help, or if they live all together already, it helps to take the pressure off the new parents for getting time to sleep, and take care of themselves. I
also feel like there is encouragement for breastfeeding as well. I remember was actually
surprised the first time I had heard about stigma around breast-feeding,
because growing up in our culture it’s definitely supported and encouraged.
We do a good job of emphasizing the importance of education as well.
I think in
particular our community does a good job of connecting youth to our culture. We
have recognized the importance of identity, and belonging and our roots. At the
Gurdwara we provide programs like tabla lessons, punjabi
lessons, kirtan classes, etc. Obviously most of us want our youth to be able to
sit and participate in the program, but sometimes it can be really long for
them. I remember Bhai Manvir Singh Ji talked in one of his kathas about how
even having kids playing outside (not in the main hall) when they are younger
is okay, because they develop a positive association with coming to the
Gurdwara (instead of having the memory of someone yelling at them!). I feel
like in the Sikh community we also do a good job of teaching resiliency through
struggle, which is not only through our history, but most families have had
when they adjusted to life in Canada. Overall, I really feel like we do a lot to help keep our children healthy and
invest in their future. I think because families are invested in each other and
our dreams are usually collective- that your children be successful in their
lives, etc., it helps because the goals are long term.
There were many recommendations in the report
I read about what should be improved in our communities to support youth, and
that included better supports for mental health and substance use, addressing poverty,
etc. When we apply this to our cultural community, I think alcohol use, youth
gang involvement/drug use, anger, and domestic violence are issues. Learning
healthy coping strategies for stress (following the teachings of Sikhi and learning to combat the thieves) is
important to help in making our families healthier. Working on developing a
sense of responsibility in the family (helping out around the house, etc.) and
larger responsibility for our actions should be improved as well. That ties
into some of the issues with drug use/gangs as well, because families that deny their child's problem enable the youth not to take responsibility, but those that get help often save their children's lives and futures. Developing a relationship with police is also a challenge in our community. I
remember we were taking pictures with my dad one day, and someone said before they knew it was him, they initially panicked that the police was here. For those of us born here,
police/9-1-1 means protection, safety, help. For many people from India, police means something different due to
corruption. So I think developing positive relationships with police as a
source for help when there is trouble is also important. I know a few Sikh youth
who now want to become police officers and I think that’s really awesome in
being able to change that perception for our futures!
Lastly, I think another
new emerging issue is technology. I have read a few questions from youth about
technology on Sikhnet, and on top of that, observing my own young cousins I’ve
realized that a lot of parents don’t know what’s going on online. On top of
that, a lot of youth don’t seem to know anything about basic internet safety!
Especially for families that don’t supervise their kids that closely (often not
by choice- grandma is watching the kids because both parents are working, etc.),
it can be hard to know what they are doing online, compounded by the fact that
some parents don’t know how to use that technology themselves.
We all play a role as part of the
community to the health of children growing up. I think it’s important to
recognize and explore what aspects of that we are doing well and which areas we
can work on to support the healthy development of Sikh youth that are growing up.
The reference to the northern health
report I was referring to:
No comments:
Post a Comment