RED LAKE – Physiotherapy student Javier Armando Porras-Gil is getting his degree from the University of Ottawa through the Rehabilitation Sciences team at Northern Ontario School of Medicine, serving his final placement with the Sioux Lookout First Nations Health Authority and working out of Red Lake.
The major point of the placement is that students get first-hand experience practising pediatric physical therapy in Northern communities where children living in communities in the Far North won’t have access to specialized medical services.
During his seven-week internship to complete his final year as a physiotherapy student, Porras-Gil has flown to the First Nation communities of Pikangikum, Kasabonika Lake, Wapekeka, Poplar Hill and Kingfisher Lake to alleviate the pressure of the dwindling number of medical professionals in the North.
“Through those experiences, we either do home visits or we're based out of the nursing station. Sometimes even different centres. For example, this week I was in Kingfisher Lake and they had their volleyball tournament and so everything was shut down,” said Porras-Gil.
“We weren't based out of the nursing station, but the Head Start building. It's sort of modifiable and flexible to be able to provide these services to the children.”
Specialized services like physiotherapy are more common in urban centres where communities have robust medical services, but in First Nations communities where there are only nursing stations with professions that are equipped to cure minor ailments, children with physiological disorders like cerebral palsy do not get the same amount kind of care.
“We see kids once a month and sometimes the ideal would probably be twice a month. So, you can imagine a child with complex conditions like cerebral palsy, they’re required to stretch every single day,” explained Porras-Gil.
“I work with a complex cerebral palsy client back home in Ottawa. I see him twice a day but he's seen by other rehabilitation aides and different people who are giving this service. He's able to keep his body moving freely even though he might not have the ability to control his limbs.
“When you look at children that have these conditions that are severely complex that are in these communities, they may be seeing a physiotherapist once a month. If there's no follow-up, if we don't have the support for other members of the community to come in or if the parents as well have the support to be able to complete the exercises and stretches, then this child will inevitably go into a position that is very fragile.”
Bunking down in the Municipality of Red Lake, Porras-Gil extends his craft by teaching salsa lessons for free at the community centre.
The combination of low-impact Latin dancing and physicality has allowed him to encourage a healthy lifestyle in his spare time.
“It's something that I've been wanting to get started because, I know that for myself, dancing has been a way to express myself, move better and it's also very low impact, low intensity. It challenges people in very different ways.
"We're using our brain and we tap into ourselves musically. All these other amazing aspects that as a rehabilitation professional, I think, that are a great way to keep fit,” said Porras-Gil.
Born in Colombia, he immigrated to Canada at a young age. Porras-Gil admitted he felt a disconnect from his cultural roots.
Learning to salsa dance was a way to reconnect to his Latin culture and, now, teaching helps educate people at many different levels.
“It was nice to be able to welcome everybody into a safe space where they could learn sort of the styles of dancing . . . I always want to inspire my students to be able to feel confident and then throw themselves on the dance floor,” Porras-Gil said.
He said people from inside and outside of the Red Lake community have been attending his free sessions.
“I've always had 10-plus students. They've always come with their friends, and it's a variety of ages. I had teenage years all the way up to people who are very close to retirement. I know that everybody enjoys it and it's been welcomed by the community,” he said.
Porras-Gil is proud of the work he is doing. He sees the potential in what NOSM does to bring medical professionals to those living in the Far North. He admits that his program works on educating students about the health-care needs of Indigenous people and inspiring new professionals to seek out these communities to practice medicine.
Porras-Gil said he wants people to “keep dancing and living and loving life.”
