Program
Tuesday
November
7
2:00 – 6:00 pm
Registration
2:30 – 4:00 pm
Showtime! Join us for an afternoon at the movies.
WaaPaKe
The personal stories of survivor-warriors and their families offers audiences a nuanced understanding of the collective impact that inter-generational trauma continues to have on survivors of residential schools, their children, and their grandchildren. It will create a space for reflection and discussion so that the children and grandchildren of residential school survivors may respond to this shared burden of history, seek accountability and mitigate the cyclical nature of intergenerational trauma in their own lives and beyond.
5:00 – 7:00pm
Opening Reception with Exhibitors and Artisans
Wednesday
November
8
7:00 am – 4:00 pm
Registration
7:30 – 8:00 am
Sunrise Ceremony
8:00 – 9:00 am
Networking Breakfast with Exhibitors and Artisans
9:00 – 9:25 am
Prayer / Greetings / Welcome
9:25 – 10:30 am
Opening Plenary
10:30 – 11:00 am
Health Break with the Exhibitors and Artisans
11:00 am – 12:30 pm
Concurrent Workshops
Empowering First Nations Health Workforce Through Data: An Interactive Workshop on the Importance of Data in Improving Indigenous Heath Outcomes
The speakers will discuss the First Nations Data Governance Strategy (FNDGS) – what it is, its purpose, its progress and collaborations established to date, and how it aligns with the work being done by First Nations health managers at the community level. They will explore and identify data and information gaps/needs/challenges/issues of health managers and the communities they serve. They will also identify opportunities for synergies with the FNDGS and the network of information. Governance Centres (IGCs) can support the First Nations heath workforce and provide data, information and tools needed to do their job better and/or to expand upon the suite of services they currently provide and facilitate a dialogue on key priorities and approaches to empowering the First Nations health workforce through data.
Speakers: Erin Corston, Executive Lead, National Data Champion Team, First Nation Information Governance Centre
Gonzague Gueranger, Special Advisor, First Nation Information Governance Centre
An Introduction to the Thunderbird Partnership Foundation National Naloxone Training Program
Thunderbird Partnership Foundation develops training programs to support the First Nations workforce as identified training needs in the areas of mental wellness and addictions from front line workers. In the Fall of 2021, Thunderbird established a working group comprised of treatment center staff and regional partners as a response to First Nations challenges in accessing naloxone kits and the need for sharing knowledge and resources to support harm reduction approaches. Opioid/fentanyl poisonings and deaths are a worsening crisis in First Nation communities and providing a naloxone/harm reduction training program for front line staff that is grounded in culture and trauma-informed, supports their efforts to protect the sacred breath of life. The objective of the national naloxone training program was to develop a curriculum package that is relatable, experiential, and easily accessible and one that regions can adapt to meet their specific community/stakeholder needs. This interactive workshop will lead participants through an overview of the National Naloxone Training Curriculum: naloxone training, culture as foundation, decolonization, substance use and addiction, anti-stigma and harm reduction and Indigenous approaches to harm reduction (including land-based initiatives), and worker wellness, supports and self-care.
Speaker: Mary Deleary, Training & Education Manager, Thunderbird Partnership Foundation
Embracing Identity and Culture for Community Wellness Utilizing Woodland Cree Knowledge
The cultural program at Lac La Ronge Indian Band works towards improving mental and spiritual wellbeing for families in our First Nations’ communities. The Woodland Cree people are working towards gaining the cultural values and practices that were lost through colonization. We are reclaiming our culture, traditions, spirituality and language by providing cultural supports and revitalizing our traditions and customs.
The workshop speakers will inspire participants to tap into their gifts, talents and skills and to find joy of expressing oneself through creative arts such as moose hide preparation, traditional food preparation, beading, and the gathering of food and medicines. These creative pieces of art result when the mind, the heart and the hands work together and remind people of their sacred responsibilities and boundaries, moral values and spiritual teachings to become central in their Families.
The presentation will provide information on the various programming offered to communities and the positive outcomes of activities and hands-on activities. The presenters will demonstrate medicine pouch making that participants can take with them.
Speakers: tbc
Details pending…
12:30 – 2:00 pm
Luncheon and Presentation
2:00 – 3:30 pm
Concurrent Workshops
Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic Best Practices and Lessons in Community Resilience
This workshop will be the culmination of reports that were written by the task group on mental wellness (the Task Group), part of the COVID-19 Public Health Working Group on Remote and Isolated Communities. Task Group focused on the impacts that COVID-19 had on First Nations, Inuit, and Métis across Canada, with a focus on remote and isolated communities. The project began when the Task Group was assembled to provide insight and recommendations specific to COVID-19 impacts related to Indigenous mental wellness. This work has been ongoing since November 2020 and the subsequent reports focus on four key areas (the full print reports are also available for distribution): 1. Substance use treatment and land-based healing; 2. Life promotion and suicide prevention; 3. Workforce wellness; and 4. Family violence prevention.
The Task Group has gathered with and heard from community organizations to highlight community-led best practices in responding to the above key areas. The reports lay out recommendations and highlight wise practices with the intended purpose of supporting a paradigm shift towards a wholistic and equitable response to supporting and promoting mental wellness among First Nations, Inuit, and Métis across Canada. Ultimately, it is the goal of this workshop to provide participants with an understanding of the complex impacts that the pandemic had on Indigenous mental wellness, and wise practices to move forward. Based off this, those leading the workshop will guide the discussion through the FNHMA’s core competencies of Health Services delivery, Advocacy, Partnerships and Relationships, and Leadership and Governance. For as stated above this workshop seeks to demonstrate to participants how to build capacity, advocate for partnerships, and promote a holistic response to the promotion of mental wellness for First Nations, Inuit, and Metis peoples from coast to coast to coast.
Speakers: Carol Hopkins, Chief Executive Officer, Thunderbird Partnership Foundation
Brenda Restoule, Chief Executive Officer, First Peoples Wellness Circle
Details pending…
Braiding the Knowledge – The National Indigenous Quality Improvement Network
This workshop will bring participants together to share their quality improvement (QI) knowledge, experiences and perspectives, and foster collective learning and innovation. The objectives of this interactive workshop are to gain a deeper understanding of the Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) method and to introduce the National Indigenous Quality Improvement Network.
This interactive workshop will explore the potential benefits of sharing knowledge through the National Indigenous Quality Improvement Network and introduce the innovative PDSA library and explain how it can be used as a resource. The workshop will also discuss how the implementation of this network may enhance the continuous exchange of ideas between communities facilitating learning from each other.
Facilitators will present the steps for creating PDSAs that brought real benefits to their communities, followed by a period of questions. Participants will gain a deeper understanding of the PDSA method, a continuous quality improvement process that enables change through iterative cycles of planning, testing, analyzing, and implementing changes.
This workshop will inspire new ideas for change and share the benefits of a QI network.
Speaker: Ivan K. McComb, Coordinator of Current and Chishayiyuu Services, Whapmagoostui First Nation, Cree Board of Health and Social Services of James Bay
Part A: Indigenous Midwifery Education Close to Home
A team of Indigenous Midwives are creating the Indigenous Midwifery Education (IME) Framework, a community-based education framework that delivers maternal child health and midwifery education remotely. Our framework also involves one-on-one local mentorship with a visiting midwife. This work helps to co-ordinate in-community mentorship with the current primary care system and clinical placements of more urban midwifery practices. The long-term goal is to return midwifery services to all First Nation communities and graduate midwives who are ready for entry-level midwifery practice. The shorter-term goals are to improve maternity care in communities, educate maternal child health workers and improve programing. Our strategy is to leave the current leadership / community health reps in community to continue to help while also providing them with on-the-job training. The majority of the midwifery education curriculum can be delivered remotely in conjunction with visiting midwifery alongside Nurse and Physician mentors already based in community.
Speaker: Carol Couchie, Anishnawbe Midwife, National Council, Association of Ontario Midwives
Part B: Strengthening Data Sovereignty and the Need to Address Data Stewarding and Storage; A Case Study of Pregnancy and Birth Led by Indigenous Midwives
Midwives have played an integral role in communities for time immemorial, yet colonialization eroded First Nations communities of these important skills and roles. Today, few First Nations have integrated midwifery services within community, requiring most women/2S+ to leave the community to access pregnancy and birthing services. To date, we do not fully know the extent of impact this ‘evacuation policy’ has on individuals, their families, and the community. Small hospital closures and health care provider shortages continue to diminish rural and remote communities’ access to primary care and services. Social isolation, intergenerational traumas and anti-Indigenous racism in health services continues to contribute to the vulnerability and risk being experienced by First Nations people, including interference by child welfare services in the immediate postpartum and/or forced/coerced/involuntary sterilization.
A goal of these presentations is to present process, wanted and unwanted impacts for health managers, and the importance of engaging with midwives and researchers to build a knowledge base for evidence informed decision making around data and education as health managers.
Speaker: Diane Simon, Community Engagement Research Assistant, University of Calgary, Health Policy Analyst, Association of Ontario Midwives and a member of the Fort Folly First Nation
3:45 – 4:45 pm
Annual General Meeting (for FNHMA members in good standing only)
5:30 – 6:30 pm
Reception with Exhibitors
6:30 – 10:30 pm
Banquet, Awards Presentation and CFNHM Convocation
Thursday
November
9
7:30 am – 12 pm
Registration
8:00 – 9:00 am
Networking Breakfast with Exhibitors and Artisans
9:00 – 10:00 am
Welcome and Plenary
10:00 – 10:30 am
Health Break… Last chance to visit exhibitors and artisans!
10:30 am – 12:00 pm
Concurrent Workshops
Accessibility and First Nations Misdiagnosis in the Healthcare System
The Accessible Canada Act (ACA) was introduced in 2019 and First Nations will be subject to the ACA in 2026. The Assembly of First Nations (AFN) is advocating for an extension beyond 2026 to support engagements on Distinct First Nations Accessibility Legislation, to build accessible First Nations, and inform a draft accessibility framework to address long-standing colonial practices that act as barriers to First Nations self-determination, mental wellness, and health.
This workshop will present legislative realities impacting First Nations and a draft accessibility/ disability framework will provide a lens through which to examine the impacts of intergenerational trauma, including discussions on the core issue of misdiagnosis in First Nations, which is built on a foundation of colonial diagnostic tools.
Accessibility in First Nations requires getting to the core issues of misdiagnosis and eliminating barriers that are created by ableism, systemic racism, inaccessible transportation, communications, built environments, and a lack of access to culturally strong treatments, and services and supports.
Participants will receive take-away lessons on accessibility, misdiagnosis, and disability assessment tools that do not rely on official diagnosis.
In a World Cafe setting, participants will be invited to conceptualize recommendations for changing the reality of misdiagnosis in First Nations and explore the value of a Two-Eyed seeing approach through a First Nations lens and a Western lens.
Speakers: Marie Frawley-Henry, Senior Policy Analyst, Assembly of First Nations
Shannahn McInnis, Disability Researcher, Centre de recherche pour l’inclusion des personnes en situation de handicap
Brenda Restoule, Chief Executive Officer, First Peoples Wellness Circle
Telling the Quality Story: Introduction to an Accreditation Tool to Support Quality Improvement in your Community
This interactive session will provide participants with a step-by-step approach to identify strengths and areas for growth by retracing the quality journey of your organization.
This quality improvement approach will provide participants with a structure that will enable them to initiate conversations that uncover the strengths in their organization and that highlight their community’s uniqueness and inherent knowledge.
Participants will be introduced to a quality improvement tool, referred to as a tracer. Through round-table discussions, they will plan and explore how this tool might work for them and their organization, what questions to ask, what to look for, which documents to review, and with whom to engage according to the topic they want to explore or standards they want to meet.
Attending this session will also give participants an insight into the role of a peer surveyor for accreditation who seeks to understand how they serve their community, celebrate what they do well and exchange ideas to make it even better. Participation in this workshop pre-qualifies participants as candidates to apply to become a surveyor with Accreditation Canada.
Speakers: Elaine Alison, Surveyor, Accreditation Canada, and Director, Wagmatcook Health Centre, Wagmatcook First Nation
Madeleine Drew, Project Director, Indigenous Health Services, Accreditation Canada
Developing Effective Policies: Lessons from COVID-19, Tuberculosis, and Home and Community Care
Details pending…
12:00 – 2:00 pm
Luncheon and Presentation – Comedian
2:00 – 3:30 pm
Concurrent Workshops
Indigenous Youth Perspective on Wharerātā Declaration: What Makes an Indigenous Leader?
In 2009 the Wharerātā Declaration was established in New Zealand through Indigenous peoples participation in the International Initiative for Mental Health Leadership (IIHML) and created an international network of Indigenous leaders working in mental wellness and addictions health. It has the goal of creating positive health outcomes for Indigenous people around the globe by promoting the critical importance of culture as the foundation of care and the need for wholistic, safe, and trauma informed services. Indigenous youth had not been engaged in reviewing the declaration to determine if the 5 themes articulated as a mandate reflect the perspective and priorities of youth leaders today. Consequently, six Indigenous youth leaders from coast to coast to coast were sponsored by Thunderbird Partnership Foundation and First Peoples Wellness Circle, to identify and present on Indigenous leadership characteristics and priorities at the 2022 IIMHL conference in Washington D.C. Leading up to the presentation, the youth leaders spent time engaging other youth to ensure that they were capturing diverse perspectives.
This workshop is the continuation of that presentation and offers the chance for those engaged to provide feedback and insight on their new declaration which will be guided through core competencies that are centered on the necessary priorities and qualities that define Indigenous youth mental health leadership. The goal of those leading the workshop is to promote holistic culturally informed knowledge exchanges that will enhance youth leadership in mental wellness.
Speakers: tbc
Delivering Turnkey Solutions for Primary Care in Communities
MNP, as the project manager, has been supporting Sts’ailes in the development of the Sts’ailes Community Care Centre (SCCC), a facility to meet the primary healthcare needs of the First Nation communities in the catchment area. Sts’ailes is also committed to the development of a community care centre that is aligned with the needs of the entire rural population in the region. By implementing a holistic, patient-centric medical and wellness services delivery model that blends the medical programs, services and practices of both the First Nation and non-First Nation peoples of the region, the SCCC will meet the medical and wellness needs of all residents who seek medical support and primary care services attachment.
The basis of the workshop will be to describe and explore ways that First Nation communities can be supported in this ground-up, one-of-a-kind initiative, from the capital planning and construction of the facility, to supporting the operational planning, staffing, and service planning.
The key takeaways that will be provided to workshop participants include a project profile that outlines all the key steps involved in developing a capital health project, along with all funding opportunities to support these initiatives and suggested processes and timelines.
The workshop will include a presentation component, along with question-and-answer period to engage audience members and solicit further conversation around capital health needs and supports.
Speakers: Angela George, Clinic Director, Sts’ailes Community Care Centre
Mark Machin, MBA Senior Manager, MNP LLP
Supporting the Trajectory of our Spirit: Living the Cree Pimatisiwin and Blackfoot Kipaitaipiiwahsinnooni (Our Spiritual Way of Life)
How do cultural, spiritual, land-based, and community connections from the time of birth impact the health and wellness of our children as defined by our Nations? Nation-based wellness indicators were developed for the Inninewok and Siksikai’tsitapii to measure the strengths of their unique Nations. The wellness indicators will help the Inninewok and Siksikai’tsitapii follow their Nation’s young throughout their lifespan.
As they examine the impacts on their Nations’ wellness, they see that culture and identity are determinants for community wholeness. Historically, health indicators utilize tools from a Western, deficit-based framework and are irrelevant to how they, as Inninewok and Siksikai’tsitapii, perceive their wellbeing. It is essential for them to measure what is working and how they return to their intended paths as Inninewok and Siksikai’tsitapii peoples. Grandmothers teach that the most critical years of instilling identity and pride are ages 0-5 years, and strong identity and pride lead to more positive outcomes later in life. This work aims to support wellness by taking back the roles and responsibilities of women, families, and Nations to provide access and knowledge of their Nations’ ceremonies to support life.
This presentation will review the process for developing the indicators within their Nations and the Nation-to-Nation relationships developed between the Inninewok and Siksikai’tsitapii peoples and the methods of using research to meet community priorities.
Participants will leave the session being able to apply their own process for developing Nation-defined wellness indicators based on the needs and protocols of their own Nation.
Speakers: Chyloe Healy, Statistical Analyst, First Nations Health and Social Secretariat of Manitoba, and Member of the Kainai Blood Tribe
Valentina McKay, Associate Health Director, Misipawistik Cree Nation
Supporting Workplace Wellbeing for Managers
FPWC will facilitate an interactive workshop grounded in Indigenous wholistic values, drawing upon insights from their Workforce Wellness Strategy. This workshop will highlight the multiple factors impacting overall workplace wellbeing and discuss shared responsibility at the individual, organizational and systematic levels, with a primary focus on supporting, identifying and enhancing aspects of workplace wellbeing for First Nations health services managerial and supervisory staff.
This workshop will engage participants using round table discussions, interactive media, reflection exercises, and collaborative solution sharing. Participants will have the opportunity to share wise practices, network with health professionals, and provide peer support. Attendees will be equipped with practical tools and resources for identifying, maintaining and exploring solution-focused workplace wellness strategies. This workshop is designed to reflect and honour the values and knowledge of Indigenous ways of being, while fostering culturally safe, well-rounded professionals in First Nations communities through the enhancement of communication, healthy workplace relationships, professionalism, and strong leadership skills.
Speakers: Anne Duquette, Program Manager, Mental Wellness Team Supports, First Peoples Wellness Circle
Maxine Peltier, Program Manager, Special Projects, First Peoples Wellness Circle
Rachel Robinson, Knowledge Exchange Facilitator, First Peoples Wellness Circle
3:30 – 4:15 pm
Closing Plenary – ‘Pathfinding’ Guide and We Matter’s Life Promotion Programs
4:15 – 4:30 pm
Wrap-Up, Exhibitor Passport Draw
4:30 pm
