Siksika Health Services offers vending machine of essential items

The Siksika Nation flag flies in the breeze on the First Nation, near Cluny, Alta., Thursday, Sept. 28, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh

Siksika Health Services unveiled the new Our Siksika Healthbox situated at the Siksika Health and Wellness Centre, Sept. 26, as part of an initiative to improve access to wellness supplies.

The Healthbox is effectively a vending machine, accessible anonymously, is free of charge and is stocked with materials such as food, personal hygiene products, health promotion items, naloxone kits and sexual health items.

"The Healthbox has been in operation for about a month, but the press conference (Sept. 26) … officially launched the first Healthbox in Alberta," said Rachael Edwards, a registered nurse with Siksika Health Services and the project coordinator for the Healthbox.

"Some people struggle to access food or personal hygiene products, so some of those items are in there – and then other things like health promotion items, recognizing that there is a segment of the population that uses substances, and we want to make sure that they have access and sometimes coming in and asking for the things that they need is not possible."

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Edwards explained Siksika Health Services conducted community engagement over the last year regarding the initiative to gauge what kinds of products would prove helpful and effective for the community to have access to.

As a tool for public health promotion, part of the aim of the Healthbox is to reduce instances of HIV, hepatitis C, syphilis and fatalities caused by drug overdoses.

"Seasonally, we will have things like hats and gloves for folks who are maybe unhoused and require those sorts of things to stay warm while they are outside, (and) things like socks in the rainy months," she said.

"One thing we heard loud and clear was that people who use substances, they need access to health services just like the rest of us, but sometimes are not ready to engage, so we provide a compassionate and dignified way for people to get the resources they need."

Within those resources, she added, contact information for Siksika Health Services is provided so that if people have any questions, they are able to reach out at any time.

The Healthbox is an initiative which is taking place across Canada. The box in Siksika is thus far the box that is the most westward in the country.

Similar boxes have been set up in Winnipeg, several across Ontario and across the Maritime provinces.

"It is our way to show people who may be reluctant to access services for particular reasons that we love and care about them too and that we value their health," she said.

"That is the message that we want to get across and that we have been working really hard on for the last year."