First Nations and Inuit Home and Community Care
For more than 15 years, the lack of relevant home care services for First Nations and Inuit communities has been identified as a significant health and social issue. In response to this need, a joint Health Canada/Department of Indian and Northern Affairs (DIAND)/First Nations/Inuit working group was formed to develop a comprehensive home care program framework. Read more. [MHT, 170.7 KB]
Completing the Circle: Elders Speak About End-of-life Care with Aboriginal Families in Canada
In this article, we share words spoken by aboriginal elders from Saskatchewan in response to the research question: What would you like non-aboriginal health-care providers to know when providing end-of-life care for aboriginal families? Our purpose in publishing these results in a written format is to place information shared by oral tradition in an academic context and to make the information accessible to other researchers. Recent theoretical work in the areas of death and dying suggests that cultural beliefs and practices are particularly influential at the end of life; however, little work exists describing the traditional beliefs and practices of Aboriginal peoples in Canada to guide culturally appropriate end-of-life care delivery. Purposive sampling procedures were used to recruit five elders from culturally diverse First Nations in southern Saskatchewan. Key informant aboriginal participants were videotaped by two aboriginal research assistants, who approached the elders at powwows. Narrative analysis of the key informant interview transcripts was conducted to identify key concepts and emerging narrative themes describing culturally appropriate end-of-life health care for aboriginal families. Six themes were identified to organize the data into a coherent narrative: realization; gathering of community; care and comfort/transition; moments after death; grief, wake, funeral; and messages to health-care providers. These themes told the story of the dying person’s journey and highlighted important messages from elders to non-aboriginal health-care providers. Read more. Hampton et al. 2010.