Creating Cultural Safety: Looking at Ottawa

Source: Wabano Centre for Aboriginal Health

Year: 2014

According to Statistics Canada, there were 19,200 Aboriginal Peoples living in Ottawa in 2011. This number has likely grown a great deal since. Aboriginal Peoples make up 2% of Ontario’s population. Despite the fact that the Canadian health care system is believed to be one of the best in the world, quality health care is not available for many Aboriginal people in Canada. Cultural barriers, fear and mistrust have hindered Aboriginal people from accessing appropriate and quality care which leads to poor health status. According to Anishnawbe Health Toronto, the Aboriginal population in Ontario “has generally noted that they have experienced culturally insensitive healthcare and have noted that at times they [are] also [met] with subtle and overt racism.”

Urban Indigenous Forum: Addressing Systemic Racism in Healthcare

Source: National Association of Friendship Centres

Year: 2020

The Urban Indigenous Forum: Addressing Systemic Racism in Healthcare was a crucial first-step in acknowledging the efforts it will take to ensure Indigenous people can access their right to healthcare with dignity and respect, however, our work does not end here. It remains our view that an Indigenous-led and community-driven process is essential in the path forward and compiling this report to share with Indigenous, Federal, Provincial/Territorial governments, our Partners, and the Canadian public as a whole is our first call to action. In this report you will find comments and suggestions from participants of the forum that range from personal experience, experience of advocates, professionals, and allies.

A Journey We Walk Together: Strengthening Indigenous Cultural Competency in Health Organizations

Source: First Nations Health Managers Association and Canadian Foundation for Healthcare Improvement

Year: 2020

Many health care organizations are familiar with the Donabedian1 model of healthcare quality – incorporating structure, process, and outcomes. This model recognizes that to see better outcomes and improvements in the quality of health services, there needs to be considered and purposeful improvements in structures (facilities, equipment, qualifications, care settings) and processes (care has been appropriate, acceptable, accessible, complete, competent).

Bringing Reconciliation to Healthcare in Canada: Wise Practices for Healthcare Leaders

Source: Dr. Lisa Richardson, Tracy Murphy; HealthCareCAN

Year: 2018

This HealthCareCAN Report discusses critical issues facing Indigenous Peoples in Canada, and the role that Canadian health leaders play in helping to close the health gap. It also presents wise practices for health leaders and organizations to address the health-related Calls to Action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC) based on a literature review, interviews with key stakeholders, and case studies of several health care organizations. The term “wise practices” is widely used in Indigenous contexts to describe locally appropriate Indigenous actions that contribute to sustainable and equitable conditions.

Calls to Action Accountability: A 2020 Status Update on Reconciliation

Source: Eva Jewell and Ian Mosby; Yellowhead Institute

Year: 2020

December 15, 2020, marks a full five years since the release of the Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. It was a momentous day that saw residential school Survivors, their families, and representatives of the institutions responsible for overseeing the horrors of Canada’s Indian residential school system gather in Ottawa to chart a new path for the future guided by the Commission’s 94 Calls to Action. Governments committed to work with provincial, territorial, and municipal counterparts to, “fully implement the Calls to Action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.” But five years later, that commitment has not materialized. In 2020, a tumultuous year for many reasons, our analysis reveals that just 8 Calls to Action have been implemented, this is down from 9 in 2019.

Land Back

Source: Yellowhead Institute

Year: 2019

The Red Paper follows a tradition of Indigenous analysis and agenda- making reports, like the first Red Paper released in 1970 by the Indian Association of Alberta in response to Canada’s 1969 White Paper. Our report, “Land Back,” breaks down the current status of land dispossession in Canada, focusing on alienation through resource extraction. We examine various forms of redress and recognition by governments and industry to incentivize Indigenous participation in resource development, while pointing to the gaps in these models. Finally, we consider meaningful Indigenous economies outside of federal and provincial policies and legislation to foreground examples of land reclamation. This report is ultimately about Indigenous consent.

Relational Systems Thinking

Source: Melanie Goodchild

Year: 2021

We explore the notion of the need to decolonize systems thinking and awareness. Taking a specifically Indigenous approach to both knowledge creation and knowledge sharing, we look at awareness-based systems change via a Haudenosaunee (Mohawk) two-row visual code. The authors explore the sacred space between Indigenous and non-Indigenous ways of thinking and knowing, to identify pathways for peaceful co-existence of epistemologies.

Etuaptmumk / Two-Eyed Seeing and Beyond

Source: Reconciling Ways of Knowing

Year: 2020

Mi’kmaq Elder Albert Marshall, Drs. Jesse Popp, Andrea Reid and Deborah McGregor discussed the idea of Etuaptmumk or Two-Eyed Seeing and other related frameworks for understanding across ways of knowing with moderator Jacquie Miller, MA.

Systems Thinking in the Healthcare Professions

Source: Margaret Plack, Ellen Goldman, Andrea Scott, Christine Pintz, Debra Herrmann, Kathleen Kline, Tracey Thompson, Shelley Brundage

Year: 2019

Across the healthcare professions, trainees are expected to provide patient-centered care, and to do so they must develop competence in systems-based practice... Effective systems-based care requires an understanding of the features and characteristics of a “system” coupled with an understanding of how to think about that system, analyze it, and approach enhancing it (Johnson et al., 2008). The foundational construct that needs to be applied in systems-based practice is systems thinking (Johnson et al., 2008; Miles, 2004; Trbovich, 2014). Systems thinking is a body of knowledge, theory, and techniques applied to enhance understanding of the interrelationships among elements, patterns of change, and structures underlying complex situations (Three Sigma, 2002).