First Nation, Inuit, and Métis (FNIM) face unique challenges in Ontario’s healthcare system due to systemic racism and the ongoing effects of colonization. To mitigate these challenges, it’s important that healthcare providers have the resources to provide culturally safe and high-quality care to FNIM clients, families and communities.
Supporting healthier Indigenous communities
The Indigenous Primary Health Care Council (IPHCC) is an Indigenous governed, culture-based and Indigenous-informed organization that supports the advancement and evolution of Indigenous primary healthcare services throughout Ontario.
“Our mission focuses on creating healthier Indigenous communities through healthcare models built on Indigenous principles, values and knowledge systems,” said Caroline Lidstone-Jones, IPHCC’s Chief Executive Officer. “This includes our Model of Wholistic Health and Wellbeing, which incorporates physical, mental, emotional and spiritual elements of wellbeing, and emphasizes that culture is treatment and culture is healing.”
“IPHCC is not on the front lines,” added Lidstone-Jones, “but we do everything in our power to ensure that our members who work on the front lines are as well-funded and well-resourced as possible. We use Indigenous solutions to transform Indigenous health outcomes and decolonize health systems.”
Resources for healthcare providers
One of the ways IPHCC supports healthier FNIM communities is by equipping its members with the tools, training and networks they need to provide the highest-quality care.
The IPHCC website hosts many resources that will be of value to healthcare providers and organizations. These include the following:
- The Indigenous Patient Family Community Engagement Toolkit – supports Indigenous communities and organizations involved in the planning, design, delivery, and evaluation of health services for Indigenous Peoples.
- Well-designed infographics that cover a variety of important themes, from cultural safety to understanding unconscious bias to how to develop a land acknowledgement.
- And much more.
Indigenous health in Indigenous hands
In August 2023, PCMCH entered into a strategic relationship agreement with IPHCC. Our partnership with IPHCC was developed in a mutual spirit of openness, respect and humility, and aims to foster high-quality perinatal, newborn and child healthcare for Indigenous peoples in Ontario. It also recognizes that Indigenous health needs to be in Indigenous hands.
We look forward to continue working collaboratively with IPHCC.