Cultural agility in Northern BC’s healthcare system: Increasing Indigenous employment participation and responsiveness to Indigenous well-being

Health Research BC is providing match funds for this research project, which is funded by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) and Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Healthy and Productive Work Partnership Grant. 

Primary Investigator Dr. Sarah de Leeuw and Co-Investigator Dr. Margo Greenwood, together with northern and provincial partners, lead a five-year, 1.3 million research project focused on further enhancement of Indigenous health and the healthcare climate in northern BC.

“Cultural agility in Northern BC’s healthcare system: Increasing Indigenous employment participation and responsiveness to Indigenous well-being” aims to bring about a more culturally safe and humble health care environment in which to both provide and receive care, as well as inspire new generations of Indigenous professionals to join the healthcare systems of northern BC.

Funded through the SSHRC and CIHR, this is the first joint federal research partnership grant of its kind to be held at UNBC, and one of only nine such grants held across Canada. The work builds on a pilot project launched in 2016, with both projects part of the joint “Healthy and Productive Work Initiative”.

Central partners include Northern Health (NH), National Collaborating Centre for Indigenous Health (NCCAH), the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research (MSFHR), Two Rivers Gallery, and the UNBC Office of Research. The project also includes and builds upon numerous new and existing Indigenous and non-Indigenous community partners and collaborators across the north. These include the First Nations Health Authority, the Northern Medical Program, UBC, McMaster University, the Rural Coordination Centre of BC, BC Cancer, Carrier Sekani Family Services, Central Interior Native Health Society, and the Prince George Nechako Aboriginal Employment and Training Association.

The partnership team coming together for this project leans heavily on a history of relationship, commitment, creativity and innovative problem-solving, and a continued need exists for strong relationships, individually, organizationally and systemically, within the shared goal to enhance culturally respectful and safe healthcare practice in northern BC.