Grant: Fellowship - PA: First Nations, Inuit and/or Métis Health

Diabetes is a condition that leads to high blood sugar. This happens because the body's pancreas no longer produces enough insulin. If there is not enough insulin, sugar remains in the blood, and with time, this high blood sugar levels cause premature aging. People who live with diabetes require medical support and need to manage daily tasks, referred to as self-management. Self-management includes managing one's diet, physical activity, stress, medications, and appointments. Indigenous people carry higher burdens of diabetes and poorer diabetes outcomes. There are many social barriers that prevent Indigenous populations from accessing supportive resources. Growing evidence suggests that peer mentorship is a promising approach to enhance diabetes self-management. Peer mentorship connects individuals with community members from similar life and health conditions who have been trained to provide social support and education and to share practical ideas for managing their health. However, the key elements of Indigenous peer mentorship are not currently known. My research question will be: What is Indigenous peer mentorship that can support Indigenous individuals managing diabetes? Starting with community, I will organize an Indigenous advisory group to guide this research. I will then explore what Indigenous-focused peer models to diabetes care already exist in Canada. Subsequently, I will develop a better understanding of how peer mentorship works for Indigenous individuals with diabetes through focused conversations with experts and explain my findings through a framework. The framework I develop will be useful to inform future care providers and members of the public to support Indigenous individuals managing diabetes in their communities. The knowledge created from this research may help reduce the burden of managing diabetes on individuals and healthcare systems, by including communities who want to help and connect, but may not know how to start.