M’CHIGEENG FIRST NATION—Derek Debassige of M’Chigeeng First Nation has been recognized for his community efforts with the Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM) with the Northern Ambassador Award in the Health Sciences Preceptor Award category. The NOSM University Achievement Celebration took place last Friday, May 3 at the Delta Toronto Airport Hotel.
“Derek Debassige is receiving the Northern Ambassador Award,” said Caroline Cox, external relations officer with NOSM, last week. The description for the award presented to Mr. Debassige reads, “A preceptor who is recognized for being a strong ambassador for their community, and who creates a welcoming environment for learners of all disciplines.”
Mr. Debassige acknowledged, “It was a bit of a surprise to be informed I had won this award. Oh, for sure, I’m excited about winning this award and humbled to be recognized for this award, when you consider the tremendous work NOSM does and the great team we have at Manitoulin Physio Centre in advocacy and development. It is easy for us to get behind the initiatives and goals they have set.”
“Derek Debassige is a McMaster (University) trained physiotherapist and owner and Clinical Director of Manitoulin Physio Centre located on the M’Chigeeng First Nation,” the award citation states. “Derek is a strong advocate for the needs of the communities on Manitoulin Island. He has developed unique funding streams for patients to access physiotherapy services on Manitoulin and helps demonstrate and teach the importance of community outreach as a clinician to his students. He incorporates Indigenous health practices and teachings into his clinical practice and helps learners do the same by passing on teachings and providing opportunities for learning about Indigenous culture outside the traditional placement setting. He is also very involved as an active member outside of his clinical practice, making him a trusted clinician, and person, on the Island. As one learner commented, ‘his passion for helping others in his community is unmatched.’”
The NOSM inception came about in 2002, and Mr. Debassige was appointed to the board of health in 2009, being reappointed again in 2012 by the Union of Ontario Indians Anishinabek, and he contributed to its redesign of governance.
“I was lucky to have some great conventional professors and traditional medicine teachers and mentors,” said Mr. Debassige. “It was instilled by a few of these early mentors that we have a responsibility to contribute to the development of health systems and that includes education institutions and learners. To look at patients concerns as a gift that allows us to do what we do and be who we are as care providers. To do this with an advocacy lens.”
“NOSM being a made in the north solution with a social accountability mandate, created with a focus on health care inequalities, was easy for me to support,” said Mr. Debassige. “When I was approached by then grand chief, Gimaa John Beaucage to contribute to NOSM as a director on the board it was an easy decision,” he said.
NOSMs distributed education model necessitates strong ties with communities in the North including 42 long term agreements with First Nations to host learners, said Mr. Debassige.
Mr. Debassige explained, “Currently we support NOSM learners by welcoming them into our clinic where they can work and learn alongside allied health professionals to optimize their efficiency by learning what we do. They get to brush up on some of their anatomy and orthopedics’ while with us. Through NOSM we also provide formal physiotherapy internships where learners from physiotherapy master’s programs from across Ontario can complete placements with our staff as preceptors.”
“Teaching is a great experience that benefits both parties,” said Mr. Debassige. “We get sharper too. I’ll add that Manitoulin is an easy place to fall in love with and after a couple of months by the water and working within the culture of our amazing team at MPC, from time to time we get them back as clinicians on staff once they graduate.”
“Although MPC is a private clinic, our vision is to provide an accessible point for everyone who needs us across the complex health environment of public and private, federal provincial and third-party funding sources. This is not an easy task, and it can keep you up at night. It’s an evolving puzzle. It requires trusted partnerships with everyone on Manitoulin. Manitoulin Health Centre, Mnaamodzawin, all of the family health teams including the Gore Bay medical team, Noojmowin Teg our local AHAC, Wiikwemkoong and M’Chigeeng. We provide outpatient services across much of the scope of practice of physiotherapy from our three sites in M’Chigeeng, Wiikwemkoong and Aundeck Omni Kaning. We also provide area First Nations with homecare service in school and outpatient developmental pediatric services, WSIB, VAC, MVA Insurance access to care, extended health benefits or private health insurance access, primary care and community physiotherapy clinic publicly funded access points.”
Mr. Debassige said, “As a faculty advisor at McMaster University, I am most excited about the future expansion of NOSM’s partnership with Mac. The possibility of educating physiotherapists, occupational therapists and speech and language pathologists in the north through a NOSM/Mac partnership is of significant value to the health human resource challenges northern Ontario faces and we will support this initiative in any way we can at both universities.”
“These professions bring value to the health system in so many ways from maintaining elders in their homes to assisting children’s developmental changes, taking pressure off emergency rooms and hospitals and helping people return to their lives after illness and injury,” added Mr. Debassige.
