Engaging with Indigenous communities and incorporating Indigenous perspectives into research and health care were strong themes at the 11th annual Indigenous Health Research Symposium at UM.
The gathering in November 2023 was hosted by Ongomiizwin – Research, part of the Indigenous Institute of Health and Healing in the Rady Faculty of Health Sciences. The overall theme was “Reconciliation in Research.”
Leslie Mattes of the Manitoba Métis Federation spoke about two mobile clinics that are visiting Red River Métis communities as a pilot initiative.
The clinic teams, who travel in specially outfitted vans, offer diabetes risk assessment and point-of-care testing, as well as diabetes foot care. The project reached more than 700 Métis citizens – including many in northern and remote communities – between August 2022 and September 2023.
“These mobile clinics … are beacons of hope offering timely assessments, immediate test results and expert foot-care services,” Mattes said. “We’re delivering culturally appropriate care. All the staff is Métis. We hear how [community members] are more comfortable coming to us than going to see anybody else.”
Another presentation shared the work of the Indigenous Peoples’ Engagement and Research Council, which was formed by Indigenous members of Can-SOLVE CKD, a national patient-oriented research network focused on chronic kidney disease.
The council informs research priorities, creates tools to support Indigenous-specific research and engagement, and ensures that Indigenous voices and knowledges are critical threads within the fabric of Can-SOLVE.
Members of a research team led by Natalie Riediger [B.Sc.(HNS)/06, M.Sc./08, PhD/15], associate professor of food and human nutritional sciences, presented research related to a proposed tax on sugar-sweetened beverages.
A “sin tax” on sugary beverages, such as soft drinks and energy drinks, is supported by many health organizations. Riediger is leading a research project on the acceptability of such a tax among Indigenous populations.
In Indigenous communities, the researchers noted, pop is often consumed because clean drinking water is unavailable and beverages such as milk are extremely expensive.
The team’s interviews with Indigenous adults found that many compared their sugary drink consumption to an addiction and said the drinks help them cope with stress, boredom and poverty.
High rates of food insecurity and past trauma help to explain addictive-like consumption, the researchers said.
“Solely focusing on sugar-sweetened beverage intake as a problem area where Indigenous people are making poor health choices is oversimplifying.…
“Instead, it’s crucial that we consider health disparities … within the broader context of historical, social and structural factors,” said research assistant Loreena Kuijper, a member of Sheshatshiu Innu First Nation.
The symposium also included a panel discussion on supporting Indigenous people with addictions in pregnancy. Panel leader Danielle Hart [B.Sc./18, M.Sc./24] focused her master’s research in community health sciences on this topic.
The panelists said pregnant people who have addictions are commonly subjected to severe stigma in the health-care system. Many physicians, they said, lack accurate, evidence-based information about substance-involved pregnancy and respond with stigmatizing opinion, rather than appropriate care.
All medical students should be educated about trauma-informed care and harm reduction, the panelists said.
“If our health-care professionals and our doctors understand harm reduction … it changes the way they do their work with people,” said Dodie Jordan, executive director of the non-profit organization Ka Ni Kanichihk.
BY ALISON MAYES