St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton (St. Joe’s) is establishing an Indigenous Health Team to deliver culturally safe care for Indigenous patients.

The hospital has committed to funding three roles while a substantial donation of $550,000 from BMO to St. Joseph’s Healthcare Foundation will fund two additional roles – all of which will be focused on creating and implementing a fulsome Indigenous health strategy at the Hospital.  The hospital will hire individuals who self-identify as Indigenous for the roles.

“We need to increase access to Indigenous healing practices and make the health care space culturally safer for Indigenous patients,” says Lisa Jeffs, Senior EDI Consultant at St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton, referring to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s Final Report. “We’re doing that by hiring more Indigenous staff and helping non-Indigenous staff learn about the legacy of colonization and how to provide more culturally safe care.”

The five-member team will be headed by an Indigenous Health Lead that will be hired at a director level and oversee the four other roles which will support patient navigation and timely access to mental health supports.

Jeffs along with Caitlin Davey, a Clinical Psychologist who identifies as a mixed background Indigenous (Haudenosaunee - Cayuga Nation, Polish and Scottish) woman, worked together to bring the concept of an Indigenous Health Team to St. Joe’s.

Jeffs and Dr. Davey engaged in consultations with Indigenous community partners, local Indigenous community members and Indigenous patients at St. Joe’s while developing the concept of the Indigenous Health Team to better understand how St. Joe’s can meet the needs of Indigenous patients.

“It makes a huge difference to have someone from your community and background that you’re meeting with who will have understandings of lived experience, the ongoing legacy of colonization and those impacts,” says Jeffs.

Dr. Davey says that Indigenous community members provided feedback during consultations that an Indigenous Health Team is the best way to move forward with truth and reconciliation efforts at St. Joe’s.

“It is important that we are listening as well as acting on the feedback we hear from Indigenous communities and community members,” Dr. Davey says. “Anti-Indigenous racism and discrimination continues to exist at St. Joe’s and within the system more generally. Indigenous Peoples are entitled to culturally safe, relevant, and high-quality care, all of which are in line with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s Calls to Action.”

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s final report has 94 calls to action designed to redress the legacy of residential schools and advance the process of reconciliation. Two of them pertain specifically to health care, calling for the recognition and incorporation of Indigenous healing practices as well as increasing the number of Indigenous health care workers and more cultural safety training across the sector. The creation of the five-member Indigenous Health Team is part of St. Joe’s continued commitment to Truth and Reconciliation.

The Indigenous Health Team:

The Indigenous Health Lead (funded by the Hospital) and the Indigenous Health Advisor (funded by the donation from BMO) will work together to lead improvements across the hospital. Their efforts will aim to increase access to Indigenous healing practices and make the hospital more culturally safe. This will involve reviewing St. Joe’s policies and procedures through an anti-Indigenous racism and inclusive lens. The goal is to eliminate anything that may be discriminatory and increase the integration of Indigenous ways of understanding and healing throughout all of St. Joe’s policies and procedures. They will also develop an education plan for staff awareness on providing culturally safe care.

The Indigenous Mental Health Clinician Role is one of the roles funded by the three-year donation commitment from BMO. This role will be dedicated to helping Indigenous individuals receive effective mental health care as quickly as possible. The role will help formalize the Prioritizing Indigenous Wellness Pathway and improve access to culturally safe, trauma-informed mental health care for Indigenous peoples. This role builds on a pandemic pilot program led by Dr. Caitlin Davey, in collaboration with the Hamilton Regional Indian Centre and the De dwa da dehs nye>s Aboriginal Health Centre to fast-track mental health referrals for those Indigenous to Turtle Island.

The two Indigenous Peer Support Staff will focus on providing mental health and addictions peer support to Indigenous People, including patient navigation. Both the Peer Support Staff and Mental Health Clinician will integrate Indigenous healing practices in the mental health and addictions program.

You can read more about BMO’s financial donation to help St. Joe’s expand its efforts to provide culturally safe care for Indigenous Peoples here.

To learn more about St. Joe’s actions towards Truth and Reconciliation, please visit StJoes.ca/TruthandReconciliation