University of British Columbia 
Okanagan
Indigenous Studies
Current Research
From Planning to Practice: Establishing Cultural Safety and Effecting Organizational Change for Aboriginal Healthcare in the Urban Centres of the Central Okanagan
Co-Investigator: Shirley Chau, Dixon Sookraj, Leslie Bryant MacLean
Dates: February 2007- January 2008
Funder: CIHR ($48 000)
The purpose of this proposal is to undertake participatory action research that identifies both barriers to, and opportunities for, developing systems for the provision of “culturally safe” and accessible healthcare for the Urban Aboriginal population of the Central Okanagan valley. We take it as axiomatic that participatory research well done will result in both more appropriate research and an empowered community. As a collaborative, participatory, and community based program, we are committed to the active engagement of members of the urban Aboriginal community and their institutions. An additional element to this project is overt inclusion of a powerful mainstream institution into the participatory frame (Interior Health British Columbia). The following organizations have indicated their support for the project:
1) Interior Health British Columbia
2) The En’owkin Centre
3) The Vernon First Nations Friendship Centre
4) The Okanagan Metis Children & Family Services
5) Ki’Low-Na Friendship Centre
6) Ooknakane Friendship Centre
7) British Columbia Cancer Agency
In addition, a number of key personnel within these organizations are among the potential co-investigators for the grant. Researchers from UBC Okanagan come from disciplines from across the social and health sciences.
As part of our commitment to work in partnership with Interior Health, the general focus of the project will be on “Primary Health Care and Chronic Disease Management” with and for urban Aboriginal people. Consistent with a fundamental commitment to holism, and the previously conducted consultations, the project will work across strategic priorities already identified (several of which have been re-iterated by stakeholders in our own meetings): Early Childhood Development; Mental Health and Addictions; Elder Care; Communicable Disease; Injury Prevention; Collaboration; Cross Cultural Education; Communication. The objectives of this first phase of the project, for which this development grant is intended, are:
•To bring together key stakeholders (Urban Aboriginal Community members/researchers, representatives from Interior Health, and university researchers from the UBC Okanagan) to facilitate effective relationships and preliminary research partnerships through strategic community-based consultative meetings.
•In collaboration with community and research partners, to assess and develop an appropriate epistemological framework which will guide the methodology of the future CIHR operating grant(s).
•To conduct a comprehensive literature review that will both inform the planning process and the development of the research design.
•To identify key health issues and concerns with respect to culturally safe health care and to identify appropriate locations within Interior Health to conduct the research.
•To develop one, or more, CIHR operating grants that will implement participatory action research aimed at developing systems for the provision of “culturally safe” and accessible healthcare for the Urban Aboriginal population of the Central Okanagan valley.
CIHR Research and
Planning Grants
INDIGENOUS STUDIES: