Indigenous communities and injury prevention: The First Nations Health Authority’s (FNHA) Response to the BC Coroners Service (BCCS) & FNHA Injury Death Review Panel Recommendations
An update from Dr. Evan Adams, FNHA Chief Medical Officer
National Injury Prevention Day is a good time to report on the work the First Nations Health Authority has done and is doing in the area of injury prevention since November 2017, when we released our joint report with the BC Coroners Service on First Nations youth and young adults’ injury deaths. We examine past injury deaths in order to prevent future injury deaths, and to remind ourselves of some important issues. We are committed to working in partnership with First Nations people and communities to identify public safety opportunities with a view to promoting wellness and safety.
The BCCS-FNHA joint death review report, which reviewed the circumstances of injury-related deaths of 95 First Nations youth and young adults aged 15 to 24, shows us that the mortality rate for First Nations youth and young adults is almost twice that of their non-First Nations peers. The report concludes with specific recommendations for ourselves and partners within four areas:
1) Promote Connectedness to Peers, Family, Community and Culture;2) Reduce Barriers and Increase Access to Services;3) Promote Cultural Safety and Humility and Trauma-Informed Care; and4) Elicit Feedback through Community Engagement.
In response to these recommendations, The FNHA developed an action plan to outline key activities to address injuries or untimely deaths of First Nations youth and young adults. Following are brief highlights from the FNHA and BCCS joint report on our response so far.
• We are engaging with youth through First Nations gatherings such as "Gathering Our Voices" held in Richmond, BC in March 2018 with over 1000 First Nations youth, and other community events and workshops eliciting youth views about how to increase connectedness, wellness and safety and resilience in their communities, along with injury prevention.• The FNHA Office of the Chief Medical Officer is leading a partnership with the BC Injury Research and Prevention Unit to develop a collaborative research project that will aim to identify safe and unsafe places for youth in communities.• We are continuing to focus on minimizing the impacts of substance use, including alcohol usage, through policy, communications, public health and health promotion activities, including increasing and improving health promotion and harm-reduction education campaigns.• We are continuing our work with partners to increase access to culturally safe treatment services.• We are developing culturally safe resources for staff training and encouraging our health system partners to include a trauma-informed practice approach in their responses. The FNHA has hired the Justice Institute of BC to develop and deliver trauma-informed care training for its community-facing staff.• We are completing a community engagement process to elicit feedback on how the broad recommendations can further be adopted within local community actions.• We are continuing to implement the Opioid Crisis Framework for Action with communities and health partners, including the province and BCCS.
