An overall approach to health care for indigenous peoples

Abstract

Indigenous peoples across all the continents of the globe live with major gaps in health status and health outcomes associated with well-described social determinants of health, such as poverty and poor education. Indigenous peoples face additional health determinant issues associated with urbanization, isolation from traditional territories, and loss of cultural continuity. Indigenous children are particularly vulnerable as they grow up in isolation from their cultural and social roots and yet are also separated from the mainstream environment of their society. Programs to address these difficult health issues should be viewed as complex clinical interventions with health researchers, social scientists, and clinicians working together with Indigenous peoples to identify the most pressing needs and most appropriate and workable solutions that will result in effective policies and practices.