Grant: Project Grant

Since 2016, almost 55,000 Canadians have died from toxic drug poisoning. In British Columbia (BC), many people cannot get the addiction care they need because services are not well connected. Indigenous people are harmed much more than others and are more likely to die. This is because of the lasting harms of colonization, racism, and culturally unsafe health services that do not include Indigenous healing practices. To address this, the Road to Recovery (R2R) program started in late 2023 in Providence Health Care (PHC) and the Vancouver Coastal Health authority. R2R aims to make addiction care easier to access and better connected at every stage of recovery. A key part of R2R is its partnership with Indigenous leaders through the Indigenous Wellness and Reconciliation team at PHC. Indigenous knowledge, cultural practices, peer support, Elder support, and welcoming spaces are built into R2R. The R2R program is now expanding across BC. However, we do not yet know if R2R has improved care for Indigenous people who use substances. This project will look at the impact of R2R among Indigenous people and areas to improve substance use treatment. Indigenous participants will be engaged to share about their health and recovery, and how access to cultural supports impacted their recovery. Interviews and sharing circles will be held with patients, health providers, and policy leaders to hear about their experiences with R2R. This will inform what is working well and what can be improved, and to ensure the program is culturally safe as it expands across BC. The project will also improve how R2R collects and manages Indigenous research data. Knowledge gained will improve our understanding of the impact of R2R clinical services and cultural supports for Indigenous patients, and inform the integration of cultural supports within R2R as it expands across BC.