Module 2: Direct Comprehensive Primary Care in the LTC Setting
13 2.1.6 TRC & Indigenous Nurses Engagement
Content Warning: The following lesson includes a discussion of the harsh treatment experienced by First Nations children in residential schools. This content is disturbing, so we encourage you to prepare yourself emotionally before proceeding. If you believe that the reading will be traumatizing for you, then you may choose to forgo it.
Canadian Indian Residential Schools (IRS) (1867- 1996)
- IRS were set up by the Canadian government and administered by churches
- Goal to assimilate native children into white society & force them to leave behind their language & culture using severe punishment
Indigenous children were forcibly removed from their parents, culture, & communities to attend IRS in every Canadian province & territory. The impact of over 100 years of IRS on Indigenous family structure, language, health, spirituality, and culture is incomprehensible
- Survivors of IRS have described abuse at the hands of residential school staff: physical, sexual, emotional & psychological
- The intention of the government and the church was to “kill the Indian” in every Indigenous child
- The purposeful intent of the IRS system is considered by many a form of genocide & has left a long legacy behind
Most Indigenous people you meet are a residential school survivor, a child of a survivor, a grandchild of a survivor, or all three. Being aware of this truth and its impacts is part of reconciliation.[1][2][3][4]
Truth & Reconciliation Commission (2015): Summary for Calls of Action for Health # 18 – 24
- The current state of health attributed to Indigenous people is the result of government policy including IRS
- Close the gaps related to health inequities by providing appropriate services
- Indigenous people living off reserve need care too
- Healing centers are needed to heal the harms of IRS
- Offer Indigenous Healing methods as well as Western Medicine
- Increase the number or Indigenous health care workers
- Provide cultural competence training to all health care professionals[5][6]
Indigenous Nurse Engagement: Call of Action # 23
- Call upon all levels of government to increase the number of Aboriginal professionals working in health care
- Ensure the retention of Aboriginal health care providers in Aboriginal communities
- Provide cultural competency training for all health care professionals
- Indigenous nurses are an essential component to improving health outcomes & increasing health equity for Indigenous people & communities
- Number of Indigenous nurses has increased over the last decade, but an equity exists for representation of nurses compared to the Aboriginal population in Canada