IHN Strategic Plan 2023/24 – 2025/26
1. Self-Care and Lateral Healing
Taking care of ourselves, our people, and interactions with non-indigenous people.
Focus: Formalize connections, expand IHN membership, re-establish relationships, re-energize, and re-unite.
Self-Care and Lateral Healing – Enhancing IHN Connections
2023-24 Actions:
- Review IHN structure and update Terms of Reference to factor in connectivity with new Indigenous positions:
- Seek to cultivate enhanced IHN membership to Indigenous roles and organizations across the region to extend support for connections and a collective responsibility for health and wellness.
- Review and revise membership and member responsibilities.
- Succession planning – co-chair (off-reserve).
- Consider frequency and purpose of in-person meetings.
- Identify resources requirements/opportunities to support the work.
- Support the design and development of the new IHN website:
- Develop and share resources tailored to improving non-Indigenous provider knowledge.
- Develop and share resources tailored to supporting the Indigenous community.
- Consider opportunities to engage in West Region wide Indigenous gatherings.
2. Advance Indigenous Cultural Safety
Informing solutions by consolidating information and knowledge. Identifying how to move forward without losing time and energy, leverage resources, strengths, and gifts.
Focus: Promotion of Indigenous Cultural Safety through education and relationship development.
Education and knowledge about Traditional Medicines/Healing
2023-24 Actions:
- Promote knowledge of and access to Traditional Medicine:
- Explore opportunities to expand on existing Traditional Medicine and the Western World video through additional Community Engagement events.
- Create a plan for training: consider short videos as an asset including context (background plus dialogue).
- Focus engagement with physicians and leaders that highlights the importance of land-based medicine and connection to natural environment.
- Support the work of the new hospital based Indigenous staff:
- Assess and review hospital-based policies to support Traditional Medicine in the medical environment.
- Inform interventions/solutions based on consolidation of information and knowledges of the region on Indigenous health.
3. Support Safety and Pathways
Creating supports, safe places, pathways, and transitions. Seeking to support Indigenous people to advance.
Focus: Support community to recover from pandemic by creating trust in Traditional Medicines and nurturing land-based connections and knowledge systems.
Support FNIM communities’ healing from COVID-19
2023-24 Actions:
- Seek funding through grant writing for COVID-19 community recovery.
- Build a resource base around how to attend to community needs around long COVID, including new opportunities for local education and support about living well.
- Connect with and gather people who “walk their talk.”
- Local education and support for people to access information about living well and learning about what is in their own backyards.
- Continue to support communities in access the healthy foods and support know about relationship to health and food.
- Attend to issues related to trust in Indigenous knowledge sharing and Traditional Medicine.
