Indigenous Wellness and Reconciliation
Be the change
A promise to Indigenous patients, families, and caregivers.
Since time immemorial, Indigenous Peoples in BC enjoyed the well-being that came from sophisticated health care, spirituality, and vibrant self-governing societies.
Colonialism disrupted this way of life. And it left a harmful legacy of intergenerational trauma, anti-Indigenous racism, substandard health care, and poorer health outcomes for Indigenous patients.
There is a direct link between the history and experience of colonialism and the challenges of Indigenous-specific racism within BC’s health care system today. As a result, Indigenous Peoples experience unfair inequities in health care access and outcomes.
Providence Health Care (PHC) and St. Paul’s Foundation (SPF) are not the Catholic Church. But we are Catholic-sponsored organizations with an obligation to truth, justice, and reconciliation. And we are driven by compassion, social justice, and advocacy.
We are committed to transforming the new St. Paul’s Hospital, and PHC’s other 17 sites, into places where Indigenous Peoples choose to access care.
Your support can improve care and outcomes for Indigenous Peoples across BC.
Reconciliation lives here
SPF and PHC are committed to the process of Truth and Reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples. We are embedding it in everything we do.
This simple, powerful statement is the driving force behind PHC’s Indigenous Wellness and Reconciliation Action Plan.
It means that everyone at PHC and at SPF is responsible for advancing Indigenous Wellness and Reconciliation.
It means we stand at the forefront of change. This is especially resonant with the construction of the new St. Paul’s on the Jim Pattison Medical Campus and our new long-term care homes. These are once-in-a-lifetime opportunities to design spaces that reflect identity-affirming models of care and honour Indigenous philosophies of health and wellness.
“Indigenous patients often experience racism and discrimination, and their rights to access services that reflect Indigenous definitions of holistic wellness are not reflected throughout BC’s health care system. We know that being supported by Indigenous support workers, Elders, and Knowledge Keepers makes a huge difference for Indigenous patients at St. Paul’s Hospital.”
– Harmony Johnson, vice president, Indigenous Wellness and Reconciliation, Providence
Compassion lives here
Nutsamaht. We are one.
Nutsamaht is a Kwak’wala word that means “we are one.” At PHC, the essence of Nutsamaht comes to life in countless compassionate ways thanks to the commitment of the IWR team and the support of our generous donors.
Beaver lives here
Blessing the site of the new St. Paul’s Hospital
As part of our commitment to honour the protocols, rights, and title of the sovereign host Nations, Coast Salish Knowledge Keeper, Sulksun, led a ceremonial blessing at the site of the new St. Paul’s, located on the unceded homelands of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Peoples.
Sulksun (Shane Pointe), a Coast Salish Knowledge Keeper who resides in the 4,000-year-old village of Musqueam, led the cultural protocol to bless the site which will also be the future home of the Indigenous Wellness and Welcoming Centre. These are his words.
“As I chanted and used the words for that place, who came to me in that moment was Squah-low (Beaver) in my closed eye vision. It was a wonderful surprise, an interesting surprise, a teaching surprise.
Squah-low, to my knowledge, is the only animal that changes geography and ecosystems totally. When Squah-low works on a creek, stream, or river, new wetland happens. It changes the behaviour of all the other beings who live in the area and all those who are going to come. It is a big change.
It makes sense to me that the new St. Paul’s Hospital and the Indigenous Wellness and Welcoming Centre will again change the geography and the ecosystem, not only of the land, but of the health care system. It all made sense to me when I was doing this beautiful work at the new site.”– Sulksun (Shane Pointe)
Patient voices live here
A personalized map to healing and wellness
“I received a blanket and sweetgrass from the Indigenous Wellness Liaison and felt very cared for. It was good to see a welcoming face.”
“I felt racially profiled in the Emergency Department and was told numerous times that my symptoms were due to alcohol or alcohol withdrawal.”
These are experiences shared with PHC by two Indigenous patients who sought care at St. Paul’s through patient journey mapping experiences.
PHC is fully accountable and fully committed to implementing its Indigenous Wellness and Reconciliation Action Plan. But we’ll only know that it’s working when Indigenous patients and partners tell us our efforts are making a difference.
We’re working to provide opportunities to collaborate with Indigenous Peoples, to hear about their experiences, and to demonstrate our accountability. One of the ways we’re doing this is with patient journey mapping sessions.
Patient journey mapping is a simple, yet incredibly powerful exercise that brings together patients, facilitators, and a graphic illustrator to produce a visual “map” of the journey Indigenous patients experienced.
Since 2021, when the IWR team first started using the technique, it has become an invaluable tool to listen to – and learn from – patients and families.
Participants are invited into a safe, supportive collective to share the realities of their experience – positive and negative. Not only does this amplify Indigenous patients’ voices, it helps the IWR team and their PHC colleagues identify areas where we can improve care.
With your support, we can start to make things right by fulfilling our commitment to reconciliation in action. We can integrate cultural safety, and identity-affirming care and research into everything we do, to improve Indigenous health care and wellness in BC and beyond.
Cultural safety lives here
Indigenous Wellness Liaisons
PHC has a specialized team of Indigenous Wellness Liaisons (IWLs) who are all Indigenous and come from various Nations across Canada. They provide a range of cultural, spiritual, social, and emotional supports: everything from arranging for traditional foods to advocating on behalf of patients.
Often, just getting a visit from a staff member who is also Indigenous can transform a health care experience.
In the words of one Indigenous patient, “I was scared, lonely, and wasn’t sure if I was going to make it.” But once she was assured by an IWL, she felt “great and optimistic.”
Such is the trust and the healing power that IWLs bring to culturally safe care.
Walk alongside Indigenous Wellness Liaisons as they tour us through a ‘Day in the Life’, and share how their work has a vital impact on Indigenous patients.
IWL team
Angela (Ange) Thomson
Sqwá, Stó:lō Nation
Indigenous Wellness Liaison
St. Paul’s Hospital
Ange was a peer support worker at St. Paul’s Hospital for nearly a decade before shifting into her role as an Indigenous Wellness Liaison (IWL), because she wanted to give back to Indigenous patients, who she believes in wholeheartedly. Since 2021, she’s been a key member of the IWL team. She describes her work as gratifying and she’s proud to advocate for what patients need, and ensure they feel safe and well cared for.
Ange is open and vulnerable with patients about her personal lived experience with substance use and spends a lot of time building rapport with people in detox or recovery. She facilitates a sharing circle in the hospital’s Sacred Space, offering Indigenous patients a safe, open, and non-judgmental place to share their thoughts – something she has seen give them hope in recovery.
“I love my job. I’ve been in this role for three years and I’m still learning a lot. I’m wanted everywhere because of the unique work that I do. It is amazing. When I go home I’m either smiling or crying. Not crying because I’m sad, but because I’m the one that was chosen to be there for that patient.”
Learn more about Ange’s work.
IWL team
Jaye Dee Currie
Pikani-Blackfoot, Maskwacis, Plains Cree Nation
Indigenous Wellness Liaison
St. Paul’s Hospital
Jaye has a lifelong interest in helping people most in need. She spent years working for different agencies in the Downtown Eastside, where she perpetually encountered systemic barriers and band aid solutions. In 2021, she joined the Indigenous Wellness and Reconciliation team as an Indigenous Wellness Liaison (IWL) and since then, has been instrumental in moving the program forward.
Drawing on wisdom and teachings from Elders, Jaye uses an Indigenous spiritual and holistic approach, and works to promote cultural safety within health care. She builds communication and trust with patients, and helps them feel respected, comfortable, and safe.
Over time, Jaye has witnessed patients reporting an improved experience at the hospital from admission to discharge, and that they feel seen and heard. She believes the impact of IWLs is stretching throughout the hospital, and each liaison is paving the way for those who come after.
“You belong here just as much as anybody else, and your health care is just as important as anybody else’s. When you give them that sense and they grasp that, everything changes right for them. They feel empowered. They feel that they do belong here because they do.”
Check out more from Jaye!
“Things are changing at St. Paul’s Hospital…it’s getting better! My daughter told me that for the first time, she felt safe, listened to, and treated with dignity and respect.” These words come from a mother sharing her daughter’s experience at St. Paul’s.”
Expanding the IWL team is the cornerstone of our IWR action plan. There is an especially urgent need for IWLs to help patients in palliative care, intensive care, emergency, and maternity.
Wellness lives in remote places
Responsive, culturally-appropriate care right across BC
PHC works closely with partners to improve the health care experience for Indigenous and non-Indigenous people and caregivers in remote communities.
One example of this is the Bridge to Transplant initiative launched by kidney transplant specialist Dr. Jagbir Gill and his team. The hard truth is, if you need a new kidney and you live in a remote or rural community in BC, your path to a kidney transplant is long and beset with obstacles. If you are part of an Indigenous community, it’s even more complex – and more urgent.
With the Bridge to Transplant, we’re creating a bold, BC-wide program to ensure rural and remote Indigenous communities have equitable access to get – and give – the gift of a lifetime.
It’s critical work
The best of both worlds
“We don’t have regular doctor visits so it’s a bit of work to coordinate flights and emergencies and supplies. But the goal is to bring together western science and Nuu-Chah-Nulth knowledge and ways of knowing to ensure the best of both worlds.” – Bernard Charleson, Hesquiaht First Nation.
Charleson is the community’s coordinator of first responders and emergency operations. He works with neighbouring Nations to collect information on first responder call-outs and identify equipment, supply, and training needs. It’s critical work: Hesquiaht’s on-reserve community is in Hot Springs Cove, more than two hours – by boat – from Tofino.
Building for the future
The new St. Paul’s Hospital
Our major capital projects — specifically the new St. Paul’s Hospital and our new long-term care homes – give us meaningful opportunities to design spaces that reflect our commitment to reconciliation and to identity-affirming models of care that reflect Indigenous philosophies of health and wellness.
The new St. Paul’s Hospital on the Jim Pattison Medical Campus is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to imagine and achieve transformative change in Indigenous cultural safety and contribute to reconciliation in meaningful ways.
As we move forward, we commit to consistent acknowledgment of the history and ownership of the lands.
PHC is partnering with sovereign Host Nations to establish a shared vision for an All Nations Sacred Space and Traditional Medicine Garden at the new St. Paul’s, and an Indigenous Wellness and Welcoming Centre on the grounds of the new health campus.
We have this opportunity to help make things right by investing in a health care system that’s free of racism.
Indigenous wellness
Part of a holistic care experience
Indigenous wellness at PHC includes cultural ceremonies, talking circles, smudging, drumming, and traditional medicines as part of a holistic care experience.
In the words of one Indigenous patient who attended a healing circle in the All Nations Sacred Space at St. Paul’s:
Tonight I heard the drums. That sounds like my heart. For the first time in a long time, I’m okay. This is in my blood, my spirit … This holds me up. You guys hold me up.
Our path forward is clear
Our work has only just begun
We are on a mission to transform St. Paul’s and PHC’s other 17 sites into places where Indigenous Peoples choose to access care.
We have a singular opportunity to help make things right by investing in a health care system that’s free of racism, and where Indigenous patients and their families feel safe receiving care.
Together, we begin by supporting – and advocating – for the care teams who integrate Indigenous wellness and cultural safety in their relationships with every Indigenous patient we serve. Teams who are transforming every PHC site into places where Indigenous patients can access the care practices they need to heal in comfort and safety. Where they know they’ll be treated with dignity and respect.
Read more
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A “magnificent” sight: Bringing the new St. Paul’s Hospital to life
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Truth telling through patient journey mapping – looking back to improve the path forward for Indigenous patients
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Partnership aims to improve emergency care in four remote First Nations
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St. Paul’s Hospital offering culturally appropriate food to Indigenous patients
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Delivering culturally grounded prenatal education for Indigenous peoples, by Indigenous peoples: The Ekw’í7tl Indigenous Doula Collective
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Hope finds a way
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Ceremonial blessing for the new St. Paul’s Hospital and Indigenous Wellness and Welcoming Centre
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BMO Financial Group commits $2 million to St. Paul’s Foundation