# Indigenous women's mental health across the life course: a global policy brief for rights-based, culturally safe care

## TL;DR

This policy brief addresses mental health disparities faced by Indigenous women globally and proposes culturally safe, rights-based solutions.

## Contribution

The brief introduces a comprehensive, rights-based strategy for Indigenous women's mental health care across the life course.

## Key findings

- Indigenous women face disproportionate mental health burdens including higher suicide rates and perinatal depression.
- There is a lack of validated screening tools and gender-disaggregated data for Indigenous mental health.
- Culturally safe policies and data sovereignty are recommended to reduce inequities and improve outcomes.

## Abstract

Indigenous women experience distinctive mental health risks that accumulate across the life course under the continuing impacts of colonization, gendered violence, and systemic racism. Drawing on recent mandates from the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and the World Health Assembly's Resolution 76.16 (2023), as well as community-based exemplars such as Partners In Health's women-led peer models, this policy brief applies the analytical dimensions of the National Collaborating Centre for Healthy Public Policy to synthesize evidence, contextual factors, and feasible policy options. It identifies disproportionate burdens in suicide rates, perinatal depression, caregiver stress, and menopausal symptom severity, alongside a persistent lack of validated Indigenous-specific screening tools and gender-disaggregated data. The brief recommends an integrated, rights-based strategy that funds Indigenous governance of culturally safe mental health services across the life course, builds an Indigenous Women's Mental Health Data Strategy grounded in data sovereignty, embeds traditional knowledge and place-anchored healing in coverage policies, and extends targeted support for caregiving and menopausal transitions. Implementing these measures would operationalize reconciliation commitments, reduce documented inequities, and generate long-term social and economic benefits for communities and health systems alike.