Manitobans support reconciliation in child health

The Children’s Hospital Foundation of Manitoba is changing the way Indigenous patients are cared for by leading an unprecedented effort to build Canada’s first Indigenous Community Healing Space in a children’s hospital.

The Indigenous-led project includes consultation from First Nations, Métis and Inuit community members and children. The Foundation is working in partnership with Indigenous Elders, knowledge keepers, Indigenous leaders in medicine, and community organizations to design the space. The project has also received official endorsement from the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs.

Indigenous Elders and knowledge keepers emphasized that traditional healing, ceremony and connection to culture are not extras, but essential components of holistic care.

With this input, the Indigenous Community Healing Space design will include an area for traditional ceremonies like smudging, a library with Indigenous children’s books and a place for visiting Elders, healers and knowledge keepers to share stories and help comfort kids like Janessa.

When Brenda first brought her then five-year-old daughter Janessa into the nursing station in Pukatawagan, she thought it would be a quick check-up. Fevers kept coming back and infections wouldn’t stop. Doctors were able to pinpoint Janessa’s illness to her failing kidneys.

Janessa made the 800 km trip to Winnipeg every few months, then every few weeks. Eventually her family needed to move from their home community to Winnipeg so Janessa could be close to HSC Children’s Hospital and get the care she needed.

“She was just a little girl, and everything familiar to her was suddenly gone,” Brenda said. “We had to leave our family, our community, our way of life. It was really hard.”

Janessa received a life-saving kidney transplant in 2020. She is alive today because she had access to the medical care she received at Manitoba’s only children’s hospital.

Children’s Hospital Foundation of Manitoba named Janessa its 2024 Champion Child – the first from a northern remote First Nations community. Janessa’s home is in Pukatawagan and her healing journey highlights the challenges children in Manitoba’s remote and isolated communities face. Throughout the years of treatment at Children’s there was never a place inside the hospital where she could feel connected to her identity, her culture and her sense of belonging.

More than half of the 140,000 children treated at HSC Children’s Hospital every year are Indigenous. Many, like Janessa, must travel great distances from northern and remote communities in Manitoba, Nunavut, and Northwestern Ontario, taking them away from their family, culture and homes to receive care. Some of their hospital stays can stretch from days to weeks to months.

Yet inside the hospital, signs of Indigenous culture, languages, ceremony or teachings are minimal. For many families, this creates an added layer of fear, isolation and cultural disconnection at a time when children are already vulnerable.

In Manitoba, Indigenous children are also three to five times more likely to be affected by disease or other health conditions when compared to non-Indigenous children, a result of systemic challenges Indigenous populations face. Indigenous peoples’ health is a result of past policies and the gap in health outcomes between Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities must be closed. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission addresses this in its 18th and 19th Calls to Action.

The Indigenous Community Healing Space aligns with the TRC’s Call to Action 22, which urges health systems to integrate Indigenous healing practices and collaborate with Indigenous healers and Elders when requested by patients.

After hearing about the Indigenous Community Healing Space, Janessa says it would be helpful to her and others. “It would mean a lot considering having to be in a hospital, in a hospital room with all the equipment, it would be good to have a space like that to really connect more with culture.”

Parents repeatedly shared that while their children were receiving excellent medical care, they felt far from home with no cultural anchors inside the hospital to comfort or guide them.

Janessa’s dad Gary says an Indigenous space within the hospital would provide comfort to families when they need it. “A space like this, while being away from home would allow us to relax a little bit during a time that can be stressful. It would give families time for themselves, to collect yourself.”

Dr. Melanie Morris joined HSC Children’s as the hospital’s first Physician Lead for Indigenous Health. As a Métis pediatric surgeon she advocated for a space where children and families can feel safe and supported.

“It’s about creating space for Indigenous ways of healing alongside the medical care we already provide,” she says.

For Children’s Hospital Foundation President and CEO Stefano Grande, the project is as emotional as it is essential. He says the project reflects a growing recognition that healing extends beyond medicine. “When kids travel so far from home, they leave behind everything that makes them feel safe. This space will help families connect with their culture and identity while they’re receiving care.”

The Children’s Hospital Foundation of Manitoba is now calling on donors to help finish this much-needed facility.

“Bringing Indigenous voices into the heart of how care is delivered is reconciliation in action,” says Grande. “But we can’t do it alone. We need Manitobans – individuals, organizations, businesses – to stand with us so Indigenous children can heal in a space that honours who they are.”

To support the Indigenous Community Healing Space, visit goodbear.ca/Indigenoushealth.