Promote and support the availability of Indigenous healing practices and other appropriate cultural programming within the healthcare system.

Indigenous Health Action Circle: Working towards Indigenous ceremony policy for healthcare institutions

The Indigenous Health Action Circle has begun work towards having a policy on Indigenous ceremonies in healthcare facilities across all zones of Newfoundland and Labrador Health Services. This policy would identify areas in existing institutions where people could go to perform Indigenous ceremonies and identify infrastructure requirements for new buildings. The policy will also indicate what should be done to access ceremony in institutions where there may not be an adequate space for certain ceremonies (e.g. a need for adequate ventilation for smudging or lighting a qulliq). A smudging policy currently exists for the Western zone, but no other zone of NLHS.

First Light: Indigenous Patient Navigators support access to cultural healing practice, demand exceeds current available resources

First Light’s Health Services team currently includes two Indigenous Patient Navigators (IPNs) who support Indigenous healing practices for Indigenous patients who are visiting St. John’s for medical reasons. The team currently has neither the capacity nor the contractual flexibility to ensure that Indigenous patients who live in St. John’s and the surrounding area are able to access the same services. A proposal for federal funding was submitted in April 2024 to create an IPN position to serve the local urban Indigenous community, but the proposal was not selected for funding.