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‘Auntie style’: What Indigenous youth want to see changed in Manitoba’s health-care system

Indigenous youth in Winnipeg have released a new report, calling for changes with how they’re treated in the health-care system.

The report, published Monday as part of the “OurCare” project, included insights and recommendations from a roundtable discussion in November. It calls for an approached rooted in ‘Auntie Style,’ where systems and workers are focused on kinship, and culturally-safe care can be provided.

“We walk into a hospital and expect to be discriminated against,” said a group at one of the roundtables.

The report said the youth expressed “a deep mistrust” of the mainstream health-care system, with stories shared of long wait times for care they attributed to discrimination. It added Indigenous youth would often put off seeking medical care until it becomes an emergency.

Some of the recommendations made in the report include having health-care staff take mandatory Indigenous studies courses, and ensuring “Trauma-informed practices and harm reduction approaches become the norm in critical settings.”

The report also recommends increasing the number of Indigenous support workers in the health-care system, funding Indigenous-led spaces and services, and removing barriers to access treatment, such as discounted tickets or bus passes for appointments.

CTV News Winnipeg has reached out to the Manitoba government and Shared Health for response.

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