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Review
. 2023 Dec;82(1):2215553.
doi: 10.1080/22423982.2023.2215553.

Effective health and wellness systems for rural and remote Indigenous communities: a rapid review

Brianna Marie Stefanon  1 , Kathy Tsetso  2 , Kristen Tanche  3 , Melody E Morton Ninomiya  4   5   6
Affiliations
Review

Effective health and wellness systems for rural and remote Indigenous communities: a rapid review

Brianna Marie Stefanon et al. Int J Circumpolar Health. 2023 Dec.

Abstract

Background: The Canadian healthcare system bares a long legacy of colonisation and assimilation of Indigenous values and approaches to health and wellness. This system often perpetuates social and health inequities through systemic racism, underfunding, lack of culturally appropriate care and barriers to access care. Current funding legislation policies enacted across federal, provincialand territorial governments do not necessarily uphold Indigenous Peoples' rights to self-determination, health and wellness. We summarise literature on promising Indigenous health systems and practices that prioritise and/or improve rural Indigenous Peoples' health and wellness. Objective: The impetus for this review was to provide information on promising health systems, while Dehcho First Nations developed a health and wellness vision. Methods: Documents were gathered from indexed and non-indexed databases to obtain literature from peer-reviewed and non-peer reviewed sources. Two reviewers independently 1) screened titles, abstracts and full texts to ensure they met the inclusion criteria, 2) gathered relevant data from all included documents and 3) identified major themes and sub-themes. Reviewers then discussed and reached consensus on the themes. Results: Thematic analysis revealed six themes for effective health systems for rural and remote Indigenous communities: 1) access to primary care, 2) multi-directional knowledge exchange, 3) culturally appropriate care, 4) training and building community capacity, 5) integrated care and 6) health system funding. Conclusion: Effective health and wellness systems must support Indigenous ways of knowing and doing in healthcare models based on collaborative partnerships with community members, health providers and government agencies.

Keywords: Indigenous; health; healthcare; partnerships; policy; self-determination; self-governance; sovereignty.

Plain language summary

Sustainable health and wellness funding plans must be provided through federal, provincial, territorial and state partnerships.Indigenous core values, culture and knowledge must be integrated within mainstream health systems.Indigenous Rightsholders must inform all plans for altering or implementing Indigenous health systems.Non-Indigenous cultural safety and competency training can improve care.

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Conflict of interest statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
PRISMA Chart of Published and Grey Literature Searches.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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