Past experiences enhance the future. Health care providers gaining expertise in creative thinking, traditional medicine, spirituality, and cultural sensitivity is an essential requirement for 21st century health care. We must stay mindful that poverty, isolation, and rural living may create new forms of social exclusion because of lack of communication and rapidly changing technology. Conversely, sensory overload resulting from a faster paced lifestyle and rapid enhancements in technology may cause increased tension and stress. This article reviews successes that may offer the reader ideas on coping with the provision of health care services in such a volatile changing environment, while honoring tradition and cultural competency.
2021 Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA+ People National Action Plan: Ending Violence Against Indigenous Women, Girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA+ People.
The National Action Plan honours, and is inclusive of, all Indigenous women, girls, and Two Spirit, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Questioning, Intersex, and Asexual Plus (2SLGBTQQIA+) people. We are unique and distinct in our identities, ancestries, histories, and traditions and we acknowledge the importance of recognizing these differences. The Final Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) relied on shared understandings of specific terms and definitions related to missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and 2SLGBTQQIA+ people. These terms and their definitions are also used in the National Action Plan, both for consistency and to respect the collective efforts by all parties involved in the National Inquiry.
Child Sexual Assault (CSA) in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities is a complex issue that cannot be understood in isolation from the ongoing impacts of colonial invasion, genocide, assimilation, institutionalised racism and severe socio-economic deprivation. Service responses to CSA are often experienced as racist, culturally, financially and/or geographically inaccessible. A two-day forum, National Yarn Up: Sharing the Wisdoms and Challenges of Young People and Sexual Abuse, was convened by sexual assault services to identify the main practice and policy concerns regarding working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people (C&YP), families and communities in the context of CSA. The forum also aimed to explore how services can become more accountable and better engaged with the communities they are designed to support. The forum was attended by eighty invited Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non-Aboriginal youth sexual assault managers and workers representing both "victim" and "those who sexually harm others" services. In keeping with Aboriginal Community-Based Research methods forum participants largely directed discussions and contributed to the analysis of key themes and recommendations reported in this article. The need for sexual assault services to prioritise cultural safety by meaningfully integrating Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Worldviews emerged as a key recommendation. It was also identified that collaboration between "victims" and "those who sexually harm" services are essential given Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander C&YP who sexually harm others may have also been victims of sexual assault or physical violence and intergenerational trauma. By working with the whole family and community, a collaborative approach is more likely than the current service model to develop cultural safety and thus increase the accessibility of sexual assault services.
Notes
Cites: Am J Community Psychol. 2007 Dec;40(3-4):290-30017906926
Cites: Aust N Z J Public Health. 2010 Jul;34 Suppl 1:S87-9220618302
Cites: Int J Public Health. 2013 Jun;58(3):469-8323178922
Cites: Public Health. 2007 Aug;121(8):563-71; discussion 572-717568641
Cites: Am J Community Psychol. 2010 Mar;45(1-2):124-3820087761
This ethnographic study explored the question, How do urban-based First Nations peoples use healing traditions to address their health issues? The objectives were to examine how Aboriginal traditions addressed health issues and explore the link between such traditions and holism in nursing practice. Data collection consisted of individual interviews, participant observations, and field notes. Three major categories that emerged from the data analysis were: following a cultural path, gaining balance, and sharing in the circle of life. The global theme of healing holistically included following a cultural path by regaining culture through the use of healing traditions; gaining balance in the four realms of spiritual, emotional, mental, and physical health; and sharing in the circle of life by cultural interactions between Aboriginal peoples and non-Aboriginal health professionals. Implications for practice include incorporating the concepts of balance, holism, and cultural healing into the health care services for diverse Aboriginal peoples.
To examine the elements of the Aboriginal tea ceremony and its relevance to psychiatric practice.
Through the Aboriginal tea ceremony, the mental health professional is able to convey that care and concern balance experience and expertise. These underpinning principles have wide application.
This off-reservation boarding school serves over 600 students in grades 4-12; approximately 85% of the students reside in campus dormitories. After having documented significant improvement on a number of outcomes during a previous High Risk Youth Prevention demonstration grant, the site submitted a Therapeutic Residential Model proposal, requesting funding to continue successful elements developed under the demonstration grant and to expand mental health services. The site received Therapeutic Residential Model funding for school year 2001-2002. Once funds were received, the site chose to shift Therapeutic Residential Model funds to an intensive academic enhancement effort. While not in compliance with the Therapeutic Residential Model initiative and therefore not funded in subsequent years, this site created the opportunity to enhance the research design by providing a naturally occurring placebo condition at a site with extensive cross-sectional data baselines that addressed issues related to current federal educational policies.
