The Kilala Lelum mobile health-care unit in Vancouver that offers everything from stitches to prescribing treatment for opioid addiction is providing a way to reach patients who may otherwise avoid doctors and hospitals.
Posted: May 02, 2021 8:00 AM PT | Last Updated: May 2
Lexi Fisher, a social worker, works at Kilala Lelum Health Centre in Vancouver s Downtown Eastside. (Ben Nelms/CBC)
Indigenous advocates and front-line workers are pushing to include more traditional ways of healing conversing with elders, smudging, sweat lodges and drum circles into substance abuse treatment.
According to the First Nations Health Authority, Indigenous people are five times more likely to experience an overdose than non-Indigenous people. Advocates and experts say this is because they face past and continuing colonial trauma. And reconnecting to culture long suppressed by governments, schools and churches is crucial to turning the situation around.