Success Stories

Good information about the health of our communities can help us answer some difficult questions:

How does our health compare with the rest of the province? How can we close the gap between our health and the health of other Nova Scotians? How should we use our health care resources? What services will we need in the future? Together with the Nova Scotia Department of Health and Wellness and Health Canada, the Tui’kn Partnership created the Unama’ki Client Registry (UCR). It is a community-owned, locally designed registry of the Unama’ki population that has been linked with provincial data sources in order to provide our communities with information about the health of our communities.  This is the first registry of its kind in Canada.

We have the highest standards of privacy protection. The registry has undergone a rigorous privacy impact assessment and there are extensive security safeguards in place to protect the information contained in it.

The Unama’ki Client Registry has put the strength of information into local hands. Before this, there was a lot we didn’t know about the health of our people. We could not say with certainty how many suffered from heart disease or cancer, or how many women were regularly screened for cervical cancer. Now, we know these things and much more. Our health information gives us the power to negotiate with government and other partners for the services we need to improve the health of our people.

Unama’ki Chiefs and the NS minister of Health and Wellness signing the precedent setting data sharing agreement in 2011 that paved the way for the development of the UCR