The impact of urban relocation on native kidney transplant patients and their families : a retrospective study

Abstract

The research, reported within this thesis, was designed to study the impact of urban relocation upon Native Canadian kidney transplant patients and their families through an analysis of clinical and biographical case histories. Data were derived, primarily, from interviews and participant observation. Interviews with post-transplant patients and where feasible, a family member were focused upon recall of their urban relocation experience as necessitated by their disease. Interviews with representatives of several health care delivery agencies elicited services to and problems of patients with end stage renal disease (ESRD), specially referred to Native ESRS patients and their families. These agencies included: the Manitoba Local Centres Dialysis Program (MLCDP); Medical Services Branch (MSB) their medical boarding homes; Manitoba Social Allowances Program (SAP); and the South East Resource and Development Council (SERDC). Participant Observation was conducted and observations recorded within the transplant clinic environs; the Dialysis Support Group and Dial a Life, a proposed housing project for medically relocated Native individuals. Qualitative analysis of data supports the conclusions that each Native patient must be viewed as an individual entity rather than a model representative of the collectivity of Native people. Each patient and their family members have learned to "adjust" to their illness, their treatment, and their relocation, using their own coping skills.