Aboriginal Peoples Health Initiative

In the fall of 2008, the Kaiser Foundation began working to help address the inconsistencies in Aboriginal healthcare delivery and health outcomes in comparison to that of the general Canadian population. Studies in Canada have demonstrated that Aboriginal health measurements, such as life expectancy and infant mortality, are far behind that of the mainstream population.

Led by the AFN and Métis people, the Kaiser Foundation and others will be creating a series of programs that will cause real sustainable improved healthcare outcomes for Canada’s Aboriginal Peoples.

While First Nations, and Métis peoples have had unique colonial and postcolonial experiences, they do share in common that psychologically, socially, and culturally, their peoples have been severely hindered.  While they share common public health issues, the diversity of their experiences and cultures must be acknowledged in the way that healthcare is delivered to their communities.  Care must be unique to each community.
                                                
In confronting and in changing the destructive effects of colonialism, Indigenous peoples are shaping their own future by working together to design and to implement sustainable programs that are effective and measurable in improving their health and socioeconomic status. These programs will be socio-culturally appropriate and contextually-specific, community-inspired, and community-directed, assuring a commitment to these programs.

To accomplish this, the goal of the project is to bring together stakeholders, experts and leaders in mental health and addictions from Aboriginal communities, the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse, the Canadian Forces, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, as well as Academic Centres of Excellence for Mental Health and Addictions at the University of British Columbia, McGill University, Dalhousie University, and others.

Discussions are currently underway with the leadership of the AFN, MNC, and Health Canada to determine the specific framework for this program.