First Nations and Metis Relations

Our Vision

• To improve the health status and outcomes for First Nations & Métis people.
• To be a diverse and culturally responsive organization: with a workforce that is representative of the people that we serve
  • One that provides quality people centered care and experiences for patients, residents and their families within the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA).

Our Mission

• Bridging cultures by building relationships with community and within the SHA.
• Educating and creating awareness of First Nations and Métis worldviews, culture and spirituality in a respectful manner.

Specialty Services

FNMR offers the following specialty services to ensure that the Saskatchewan Health Authority is a culturally safe place for the clients, residents, their families and employees from all cultures.

• Program consultations towards cultural responsiveness and cultural safety.
• Professional development and learning opportunities in cultural responsiveness and cultural humility.
• Cultural conflict advisory and mediation consultations (individual or group).
• Recruitment and retention consultations.
• Research consultations.

What We Do

A representative workforce is one where all levels of employment within an organization are represented by the community being served. A representative workforce organizational strategic plan identifies specific priorities of building this workforce in the Saskatchewan Health Authority. These are:

Recruitment & Retention

• Working towards building a representative workforce to reflect the communities we serve.
• Support in making the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) the First Nations and Métis employer of choice by creating culturally safe spaces for all employees, as well as building partnerships internally and externally.

Research Consultation

• Committed to quality research and evaluation to support the development of programming that leads to better health outcomes for First Nations and Métis peoples.
• Provide services in the area of First Nations and Métis health research and the methodologies from proposal to completion.

Traditional Pathways

• Bringing together multiple ways of knowing and creating space to improve health outcomes of First Nations and Métis people in Saskatchewan.

Culturally Responsive Education

• Working towards achieving culturally safe care in Saskatchewan.
• Offering a variety of professional development and learning opportunities in cultural responsiveness, cultural safety and reconciliation.

Engagement

• Authentic engagement with First Nations and Métis communities, both rural and urban throughout Saskatchewan.
• Establishing and Maintaining existing services and partnerships externally with First Nations and Métis peoples.
• Establishing Internal collaborative relationships within the SHA that support the improved health status and outcomes for First Nations and Métis peoples.

Cultural Responsiveness

By developing a culturally responsive environment within the Saskatchewan Health Authority, it allows for the creation of the ethical space needed in bridging 2 world health systems together to ensure that the First Nations and Métis peoples of Saskatchewan receive quality care.

• Cultural Responsiveness has been described as “respecting where people are from and including their culture in the design and delivery of services,” or an "active process of seeking to accommodate the service to the client's cultural context, values and needs”.¹ It “implies an understanding of, and respect for, a person’s culture, and that meaningful efforts are made to ensure that culture is factored into the health care services that are being delivered and to the health system as a whole”.^2,3
• Cultural Humility is not about achieving awareness or knowledge, but rather self-humility. It is a process, and cannot be achieved. It is a lifelong process of self-reflection and self-critique (rather than only learning about the culture of the other/cultural competency).⁴
• Cultural Safety is an outcome, a feeling of safety defined and experienced by patients or clients. It is based on respectful interaction, an understanding of the power dynamics inherent to health service delivery, of institutional discrimination, and is driven by the need to create equity through education and systemic change. It acknowledges that we are all bearers of culture, and must all reflect on and challenge our own attitudes, beliefs, assumptions, and values. It means moving beyond the aforementioned concepts by analyzing imbalances in power and privilege, institutional discrimination, and colonial relationships as they apply to health care.^5,6