S05 E08 Indigenous Relations and Wellness Advocate Roles
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In this episode Morgan and Sarah explore Indigenous Advocate and Indigenous liaison roles in Primary Care. Indigenous Liaisons and Advocates work across the primary care system to support Indigenous people in accessing care. This can also include supporting system transformation towards more culturally safe care, providing education to healthcare colleagues, and working alongside Indigenous Nations, elders, and community to design care for local needs. We will hear from two people who work in advocacy and liaison roles about what they do, how they work, and what they enjoy about working in primary care.

The key takeaways from this episode include:

• Indigenous support roles might span the whole system of care and are responsive to the unique needs of each community and Nation they serve - they won’t ever look the same and that’s a good thing!
• The approaches, decisions, and changes to care must be guided by community, elders and Indigenous people.
• Care practice between Indigenous support roles and patients needs to: be grounded in relational care, have a deep understanding of history, take careful consideration of space, and allow the process to unfold with Indigenous patients setting the pace.

Guests:

A huge thank-you to our guests from this episode for sharing their knowledge and experience with us. In this episode you heard from:

Reina Thurmer: Reina was born and raised in Whitehorse, Yukon, and she is a member of the Wikwemikong First Nation on her mother’s side and German on her father’s side. When interviewed for this episode, she held the role of Indigenous Wellness Advocate with the Comox Valley PCN, working on the K’ómoks First Nation supporting patients in receiving culturally appropriate care from family doctors, nurse practitioners and other healthcare team members. She has since left that role and started med school!

Gracie Kelly: Gracie’s family roots are with the Soowahlie/Xaxlip First Nations and she is a Cultural Safety and Humility facilitator, an educator, enjoys sharing traditional teachings and is an advocate of supporting Indigenous communities. Gracie works with the Chilliwack Division of Family Practice, a non-profit society that represents Family Physicians in Chilliwack, Agassiz, Seabird Island and Hope. Their members provide primary care services from Chilliwack to Boothroyd and strive to improve health care services for patients by supporting an engaged and collegial medical community.

Resources and Links :

• To learn more about Gracie’s work with the Chilliwack Division of Family Practice have a look at the PDF they have created for Cultural Safety and Humility
• Cultural Safety and Humility Brochure)
• and visit: https://divisionsbc.ca/chilliwack/sharing-cultural-safety-and-humility).
• To learn more about the breadth of work being done in the First Nations Health Authority see: https://www.fnha.ca/what-we-do). For more information about their work on cultural safety and humility across the healthcare system see: https://www.fnha.ca/what-we-do/cultural-safety-and-humility)
• To learn more about pronunciation of First Nations in BC see the First Nations Pronunciation Guide: https://www.first-nations.info/pronunciation-guide-nations-british-columbia.html) and https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/british-columbians-our-governments/indigenous-people/aboriginal-peoples-documents/a_guide_to_pronunciation_of_bc_first_nations_-_oct_29_2018.pdf)
• In Plain Sight Report on Addressing Indigenous-specific Racism and Discrimination in B.C. Health Care: https://engage.gov.bc.ca/app/uploads/sites/613/2020/11/In-Plain-Sight-Summary-Report.pdf)
• To read more about the Chilliwack & Fraser Health Rural Primary Care Centre: https://www.fraserhealth.ca/Service-Directory/Locations/Chilliwack/chilliwack-and-fraser-health-rural-primary-care-centre-momiyelhtelaxwt).