Indigenous-led team at Brantford General Hospital aims to offer better care for First Nations patients

When Cheryl Miller spent eight days at the Brantford General Hospital (BGH) just outside of her home in Six Nations, Ont., in December, she had a surprise visit to her hospital room that made her stay so much better.

One of the nurses had asked Miller if it was okay for Leigh Staats, the hospital's new Indigenous patient navigator, to come by. And because Miller hadn't had any visitors due to COVID-19 restrictions, she welcomed the idea, which also came with a much-appreciated toiletry kit.

"We gabbed back and forth and of course we come to find out we're related," Miller said. 

Staats explained to Miller what was going on with her health, answered her questions, and told her about the Indigenous Family Space that she could visit to smudge if she wanted to. 

Before Miller was discharged, Staats offered to call her family, help her with paperwork, and handed her a business card with her contact information, in the case Miller had any medical-related questions after returning home. 

The service was part of a new program at BGH, where members of both Mississaugas of the Credit and Six Nations of the Grand River visit for emergencies and health care. 

Six Nations does not have a hospital of its own, though it does have a community health centre, Gane Yohs. Some neighbouring hospitals have Indigenous patient navigators and an Indigenous health committee, bur the Indigenous Health Services department at BGH, which launched in September 2020, is now one of only a few similar hospital programs in Canada. It is out to provide better, more culturally safe care to the First Nations, Metis and Inuit patients who enter the hospital's doors. 

Miller said the care made a difference. 

"Being a social worker myself and the health advocacy officer for a number of years, I knew [the health-related information], but it felt comforting to me because I was now in a place where I wasn't allowed my family connections, and my community connections because of COVID, and that put a big loneliness wall up there. That little chitchat that we had, she spent about 15-20 minutes with me … I was really grateful for that," Miller said. 

The program is multi-pronged, with access to traditional plant medicines and ceremonies, an Indigenous Family Space and the creation of a more community-based environment for Indigenous patients. 

"This work is so important especially with [the hospital] situated so close to two Indigenous communities and the large urban Indigenous population of Brantford," Christina Ingram, chair of the BGH's Indigenous cultural safety committee, wrote on the BGH website after the program launched. 

The initiative aligns with BGH's strategic plan to improve the experience of Indigenous patients — a population that, according to several studies, has faced discrimination and unfair treatment in urban healthcare settings.

The program also launched because of a gap that one local doctor saw when serving her community. 

Six Nations doctor Amy Montour came to BGH in 2010 as a medical student, and is now the interim chief and medical director of the department of hospital-based medicine.