The assessment tool was created in 2011 by Mary Jo Wabano,
Health Services Director for Wiikwemkoong, and Dr. Nancy Young, Laurentian’s
Research Chair in Rural and Northern Children’s Health and children of Wiikwemkoong.
The goal was to identify meaningful concepts
of health and well-being.
community to represent what health and wellness meant to them.
The outcome was a 62 item questionnaire known as the Aaniish Naa Gegii, a Children’s Health and Well-being Measure (ACHWM). Culturally appropriate in its design, the ACHWM is reflective of Indigenous youth and provides them the opportunity to tell their story on an Android Tablet.
The ACHWM is a 62 item tablet-based health and wellbeing assessment geared for children 8 to 18 years of age.
It's implementation process includes a triage component to connect children at potential risk to local services.
There are many benefits to the ACHWM.
It was developed with and for Indigenous children 8-18 years of age;
It is culturally relevant and grounded in the Medicine Wheel; results report Spiritual, Emotional, Mental and Physical health summary scores;
The use of modern tablets engage children;
The ACHWM can be valuable for providing a description of children’s health within the community. The data obtained can :
1– Help inform local program planning;
2– Help communities better determine the health of the children in the community;
3– Identify areas where more services may be needed;
4– Provide overall data to support advocacy for program funding.
Utilising the embedded screening mechanism, which alerts the team to respondents who are experiencing mental health challenges;
Producing a report summarizing the health and wellness of a child at intake;
Providing an overall wellness score for the child, as well as a score for physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual health;
Calculating scores to provide an encompassing summary of the child’s health needs;
What is Program Evaluation?
A systematic approach in which information about a program is: collected, analysed, and reported.
Why should we Evaluate Programs?
Results from program evaluations can help in ad-vocating for program funding and guide decisions on what programs to offer.
ACHWM as a Tool for Program Evaluation
The ACHWM helps systematically collect health outcomes to understand the impact the program has on the child’s wellness. By implementing the ACHWM pre-program and post-program, evalua-tors can observe if changes occur in a child’s over-all wellbeing health assessment after participating in the program based on their summary scores.
The ACHWM can act as a tool in gathering credible evidence to help inform final reports and justify need for future funding.
Diane Jacko, Health Services Director
Naandwechige-Gamig Wikwemikong Health Centre
Wiikwemkoong Unceded Territory
Nancy L. Young, Senior Scientist
Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute
Phone: 705-675-1151 ext. 4014