Nii Kandis (Knowing Myself): Finding a Sacred Home at Anishnawbe Health Toronto Through Spirit-Based Healing

TL;DR

This paper explores how Anishnawbe Health Toronto integrates Indigenous worldviews into mental health services to better serve Indigenous clients.

Contribution

The study contributes an Indigenous-informed model of mental health care emphasizing cultural resurgence and spiritual healing.

Findings

Indigenous mental health services at AHT emphasize healing relationships and sacred spaces.

Spirituality is central to wellness and cultural resurgence in Indigenous health care.

The study supports community-centered research methods aligned with Indigenous ethics.

Abstract

Public health relevance—How does this work relate to a public health issue?
Research has indicated that there is a higher dropout rate amongst Indigenous clients using Western mental health treatments in North America, as Western services are not always culturally safe for Indigenous clients.Given the history of intergenerational and ongoing systemic trauma facing Indigenous Nations, this results in a higher-needs population being underserved by health services.

Research has indicated that there is a higher dropout rate amongst Indigenous clients using Western mental health treatments in North America, as Western services are not always culturally safe for Indigenous clients.

Given the history of intergenerational and ongoing systemic trauma facing Indigenous Nations, this results in a higher-needs population being underserved by health services.

Public health significance—Why is this work of significance to public health?
In recent years, Canadian healthcare services have sought to integrate Indigenous worldviews into programming, to address systemic racism in healthcare, and to promote cultural safety in healthcare.Our community partner, Anishnawbe Health Toronto (AHT), is Canada’s largest multidisciplinary Indigenous health centre. This project investigates cultural resurgence efforts in AHT health programming and details Indigenous-informed models and understandings of mental health.

In recent years, Canadian healthcare services have sought to integrate Indigenous worldviews into programming, to address systemic racism in healthcare, and to promote cultural safety in healthcare.

Our community partner, Anishnawbe Health Toronto (AHT), is Canada’s largest multidisciplinary Indigenous health centre. This project investigates cultural resurgence efforts in AHT health programming and details Indigenous-informed models and understandings of mental health.

Public health implications—What are the key implications or messages for practitioners, policy makers and/or researchers in public health?
Findings detail the unique healing relationships in mental health services at AHT (“extended family model”, minimizing power imbalances, promoting client self-determination), the sacred space offered within the centre, and the role of spirituality in mental health healing and community wellness.These descriptions offer a model for other health centres serving Indigenous populations in North America and can inform policy makers around how spending dollars can support Indigenous mental health services.

Findings detail the unique healing relationships in mental health services at AHT (“extended family model”, minimizing power imbalances, promoting client self-determination), the sacred space offered within the centre, and the role of spirituality in mental health healing and community wellness.

These descriptions offer a model for other health centres serving Indigenous populations in North America and can inform policy makers around how spending dollars can support Indigenous mental health services.

Anishnawbe Health Toronto (AHT) is Canada’s largest multidisciplinary Indigenous health centre. In 2023, the Executive Director of AHT spearheaded a community-centered research study looking at mental and spiritual health for its community of service users. This project sought to support cultural resurgence efforts in AHT health programming through the synthesis of Indigenous-informed models and understandings of mental health, rooted in the knowledge and experience of care providers at AHT. This project also sought to enhance Indigenous community research capacity by involving Indigenous community stakeholders in each stage of the qualitative research process. This paper details these methods, which follow Indigenous community ethics in research, and include both Indigenous approaches to research as well as qualitative methods. This paper then presents a summary of the study’s findings, describing the interdisciplinary mental health services of a team of Indigenous and non-Indigenous practitioners at AHT. Three major themes describe the unique features of these services: The Healing Relationship, Indigenous Spaces and Identities as a “Sacred Home”, and Healing Through Spirit. The connection between spirituality and Indigenous wellness is discussed by centering Indigenous values and ways of knowing as central to Indigenous healing, survivance, and cultural resurgence.