First-ever Indigenous health research gets funding

PRINCE GEORGE – The National Collaborative Centre for Indigenous Health has received funding to grow the first-ever collection of cultural safety and Indigenous-specific anti-racism tools and resources.

Indigenous Services Canada is providing $520,000 over five years to support this initiative nationally and the Government of British Columbia is contributing $550,000 to enable B.C. health system partners to create tools, strategies, and resources to enhance culturally safe service delivery and practices across the health system.

“We currently have 365 resources spit up into 61 different categories. So you may be looking for something on early maternal health or you might be looking for a policy document,” explains Dr. Margo Greenwell, Academic Leader, NCCIH. She says reports like “Out of Sight,” looking into the death of Brian Sinclair in a Winnipeg hospital and a scathing report from Mary-Ellen Turpel-Lafond last fall highlighted the discrimination in the health care system. She says she’s known this for years and not addressing it would be a travesty.