Learning Together: Co-Developing meaningful partnerships for spinal cord injury research with Indigenous Peoples

In Canada, 86,000 people are living with spinal cord injury (SCI), a serious and life changing health condition. Rates of SCI have grown considerably over recent years; however, rates of SCI in Indigenous people are almost 250% higher compared to non-Indigenous people. In addition, Indigenous people are known to experience poorer health outcomes overall, resulting from widespread discrimination and racism. There is a need to meaningfully work with Indigenous people with SCI to develop engagement and research priorities that inform services and solutions that can improve their health and wellbeing.

By working in partnership with Indigenous people with SCI, and other allies and partners, we will undertake three Gatherings in three regions of British Columbia. During the Gatherings, we will support relationship building, share experiences and priorities, and will learn together about the resiliencies of Indigenous people with SCI. We will then work together to create an engagement and research plan that will document the needs and priorities of Indigenous people living with SCI. Finally, we will support the development of a BC-wide Indigenous SCI network. We will share our findings through reports, summaries and a research article.