The First Nations Health & Wellness Summit, held from April 4-6, 2023, brought together a group of more than 400 participants at the Pan Pacific Hotel in Vancouver to share wise, community-driven practices for wholistic wellness.
The Summit was an opportunity to come together to learn about innovative ways that communities and partners are addressing the critical health issues impacting First Nations people in BC.
The primary areas of focus for the Summit included:
- The toxic drug response
- Primary care
- Health emergency management
- Mental health, wellness and healing
The event featured:
- A series of keynote speakers, workshops and interactive discussions that will highlight community-based wise and best practices – so that these learnings can be taken home, adapted and take root in your communities.
- Hands-on training and education focused on building capacity around trauma, addictions, harm reduction, and wellness.
Expressing gratitude: a heartfelt thank you to our supporters
The FNHA warmly thanks the delegates who attended the 2023 Summit. We are grateful for your participation and contributions! Over 430 participants showed their interest and commitment to sharing wise, community-driven practices for wholistic wellness.
News articles
View news stories and images for the 2023 Summit here:
Social media posts
For easy viewing, the posts below originate from Facebook; however, the FNHA is also active on other social media platforms like Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn. The posts and images below are the same across all these platforms.
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Presentations
If you are interested in some of the slide presentations from the Summit, you can view or download them below.
Tuesday, April 4
MORNING KEYNOTE
We Are All on a Wellness Journey
BREAKOUTS: TOXIC DRUG RESPONSE
Dialogue 1: Mobile Overdose Prevention, Harm Reduction and Outreach
Dialogue 2: Supporting Safe Social Detox in Community
Dialogue 3: Honouring Our Lost Loved Ones through Ceremony and Culture
Dialogue 4: Creating A Continuum Of Care for People Who Use Substances
Dialogue 5: Training: Indigenous Harm Reduction Practices
AFTERNOON KEYNOTE
Celebrating Success – First Nations Primary Care Initiatives
BREAKOUTS: PRIMARY CARE
Dialogue 1: Integrating Traditional Wellness into Primary Care
Dialogue 2: Applying FNHA's Territory Acknowledgment Information Booklet to the HSO Cultural Safety and Humility Standard
Dialogue 3: Embedding Support at the Edge: The Journey of Real-Time Virtual Support Peer Pathways
Dialogue 4: First Nation Attachment Gap Analysis for Primary Care Network Resourcing
Dialogue 5: The Pan-Provincial Electronic Medical Record
Wednesday, April 5
MORNING KEYNOTE
Drawing on traditional teachings, community strengths and partnerships to address the toxic drug public health emergency
BREAKOUTS: TOXIC DRUG RESPONSE
Dialogue 1: Supporting People With Lived and Living Experience
Dialogue 2: Medication Assisted Treatment - Opioid Agonist Therapy
Dialogue 3: Harm Reduction in Action
Dialogue 4: Next Steps: Recovery Management and the Importance of Post Treatment Supports
Dialogue 5: Training: How To Access Treatment Centres
AFTERNOON KEYNOTE
tiičʕaqƛ. Nurturing Pathways to Holistic Health and Community Wellbeing through Indigenous Food Sovereignty
BREAKOUTS: HEALTH EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT
Dialogue 1: Climate Preparedness and Resilience
Dialogue 2: Strengthening Health Transportation Capacity
Dialogue 3: Food Security and Sovereignty
Dialogue 4: Understanding and Applying the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction – Making it Make Sense for Your Community
Dialogue 5: Training: Accessing Emergency Support Services During Evacuation
Thursday, April 6
MORNING KEYNOTE
Honouring Our Youth
- No presentation available
BREAKOUTS: MENTAL HEALTH, WELLNESS AND HEALING
Dialogue 1: Healing Houses and Modalities
Dialogue 2: Land-based Healing - Youth, Family, Communities
Dialogue 3: Pine Noodles and Spruce Tips: Revitalizing Our Traditional Medicine and Plant Knowledge
Dialogue 4: Ta Skwálwentn: Wholistic Healing App
Dialogue 5: Promising Practices in Housing
MORNINGKEYNOTE
Notorious Cree
- No presentation available
