Towards attainment of Indigenous health through empowerment: resetting health systems, services and provider approaches
- PMID: 33547176
- PMCID: PMC7871239
- DOI: 10.1136/bmjgh-2020-004052
Towards attainment of Indigenous health through empowerment: resetting health systems, services and provider approaches
Abstract
Colonial policies and practices have introduced significant health challenges for Indigenous populations in commonwealth countries. Health systems and models of care were shaped for dominant society, and were not contextualised for Indigenous communities nor with provision of Indigenous cultural approaches to maintain health and wellness. Shifts to support Indigenous health outcomes have been challenged by debate on identifying which system and service components are to be included, implementation approaches, the lack of contextualised evaluation of implemented models to justify financial investments, but most importantly lack of effort in ensuring equity and participation by affected communities to uphold Indigenous rights to health. Prioritising the involvement, collaboration and empowerment of Indigenous communities and leadership are critical to successful transformation of healthcare in Indigenous communities. Locally determined priorities and solutions can be enacted to meet community and individual needs, and advance health attainment. In this paper, existing successful and sustainable models that demonstrate the empowerment of Indigenous peoples and communities in advocating for, designing, delivering and leading health and wellness supports are shared.
Keywords: health policy; health services research; health systems; public health.
© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2021. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.
Conflict of interest statement
Competing interests: None declared.
References
-
- United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues Factsheet: United nations.
-
- First Nations Health Authority Our history, our health. Available: https://www.fnha.ca/wellness/our-history-our-health [Accessed 07 Dec 2020].
-
- Waldram JB, Herring DA, Young TK. Aboriginal health in Canada: historical, cultural and epidemiological perspectives. 2 ed Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Press Incorporated, 2006.
-
- Blyton G Healthier times?: revisiting Indigenous Australian health history. Health History 2009;11:116–35. - PubMed
Publication types
MeSH terms
LinkOut - more resources
Full Text Sources
Other Literature Sources