Federal gov't announces money for Aboriginal health research
- EFN Staff | July 11, 2014
Today, the federal government announced money to help projects aimed at promoting health equity amongst Aboriginal people.
The Honourable Rona Ambrose, Minister of Health, announced funding for three recipients of the Partners for Engagement and Knowledge Exchange (PEKEs) grants through the Canadian Institutes of Health Research's (CIHR) Pathways to Health Equity for Aboriginal Peoples (or Pathways) signature initiative. Pathways focuses on four main areas of First Nations, Métis and Inuit health: suicide prevention, obesity and diabetes, tuberculosis, and oral health.
Through $25 million in funding support, Pathways research will create an evidence base that supports the design and implementation of health interventions in the four areas listed above. The research will also identify how these interventions can be adopted by First Nations, Métis and Inuit communities across Canada by respecting their cultures and traditional knowledge. PEKEs grant recipients will play an important role in facilitating the knowledge exchange effort between researchers and Aboriginal peoples communities and organizations through the establishment and promotion of ongoing communication, and cultural integration activities.
"This investment is an important step towards improving the health of Canada's indigenous populations. Pathways aims at finding new ways of implementing interventions that will help fight suicide, obesity and diabetes, tuberculosis, and oral health problems in First Nations, Métis and Inuit communities. The three PEKEs recipients will facilitate this process, by ensuring that knowledge exchange between researchers and residents of these communities incorporates and respects their traditional knowledge," Dr. Alain Beaudet, President, CIHR.
The recipients of the PEKEs funding, selected by an international peer review panel, will receive approximately $1 million a year each over a five year period. The successful recipients are: the National Association of Friendship Centres; First Nations Health and Social Secretariat of Manitoba; and the Native Women's Association of Canada.
"The Native Women's Association of Canada is very pleased that the project submitted for funding to CIHR's Pathways to Health Equity for Aboriginal Peoples Partners for Engagement and Knowledge has been approved. Working in collaboration with partners and a research team, this project will, through a culturally-relevant gender based framework, explore and identify traditional and non-traditional health care models that can complement western science to improve health outcomes for Aboriginal people," says Claudette Dumont-Smith, Executive Director of NWAC.
"This funding is an important first step in developing a better understanding about the health of the urban Aboriginal population. In an effort to ensure that research outcomes are relevant and meaningful to urban Aboriginal communities, the NAFC-PEKE will support and develop research and knowledge translation capacity among 119 geographically and culturally diverse Friendship Centres across the country," adds Jeff Cyr, Executive Director of NAFC.
Pathways was launched in 2012.