Grant: Knowledge Translation Supplement

Drug addiction among Aboriginal women is a serious health concern in Canada. Building upon our national, interdisciplinary team's success, the aim of this proposed project is to effectively translate our study's findings through the implementation of a health intervention workshop. The proposed project involves synthesizing feedback gathered from a pilot-testing of the intervention workshop undertaken at 6 National Native Alcohol and Drug Abuse Program (NNADAP) and 2 non-NNADAP treatment facilities in 2010. Structured feedback was gathered on both the content of the workshop and the facilitation process. In the proposed project, the workshop will be finalized and widely disseminated to 30 NNADAP centres and a provincial treatment facility and jail. The workshop, as piloted, is one outcome of a CIHR-funded study (IAPH) that examined the role of identity and stigma in the healing journeys of over 100 criminalized First Nations, Métis and Inuit women in NNADAP treatment. The workshop builds upon our team's earlier achievement in KT where our research findings were composed into a song and music video, titled From Stilettos to Moccasins. The workshop extends our team's KT efforts and will serve as a self-sustaining support program for improving Aboriginal women's health. Our team's adherence to a collaborative research approach and development of a KT strategy included 'balanced' involvement of Elders, treatment providers, First Nations, Métis and Inuit women who were in drug treatment, treatment centre directors, academic researchers, students, community agencies working with criminalized women, and government and non-government decision makers. With the expertise and wisdom of our varied team members guiding the proposed project, we are exceedingly well-positioned for this next KT step. All partners are committed to disseminating the experiential healing voices of Aboriginal women in our study through this project's unique KT health intervention workshop.