'WE'RE NOT ONLY HERE FOR YOUR CHILD': EARLY INTERVENTION IN THE CONTEXT OF INDIGENOUS FAMILIES IN CANADA

Background: Despite some improvements in recent years, many Indigenous children in Canada continue to experience health inequities as a result of structural factors that are unjust and potentially remediable. Currently there... [ view full abstract ]

Background:
Despite some improvements in recent years, many Indigenous children in Canada continue to experience health inequities as a result of structural factors that are unjust and potentially remediable. Currently there is a lack of knowledge on how early intervention programs promote Indigenous children’s health and address health inequities that are rooted in structural factors. This is of serious concern given growing evidence on the effects of early adversity across the life course.
Method:
This qualitative inquiry was informed by critical theoretical perspectives and employed decolonizing methodologies to undertake research in partnership with an Indigenous early intervention program in British Columbia, Canada. Data collection included semi-structured interviews with Indigenous caregivers, Elders, early intervention workers, and their managers.
Results:
Critical analyses revealed how Indigenous early intervention policies and practices are: (1) grounded in a relational onto-epistemology; (2) are highly responsive to the diversity, complexity and specificities of families’ lived realities, and (3) affirm and strengthen women’s agency and resistance, particularly in the context of their experiences of socio-economic marginalization, and racialization in the healthcare and child welfare systems.
Conclusion:
This research begins to address a gap in the literature on how a relational approach to early intervention, as part of a network of social supports, can play an important role in fostering health equity for Indigenous children and non-Indigenous children living in conditions of social disadvantage.
Application to Practice:
Findings are applicable to occupational therapy for all families and children who experience social marginalization and structural violence.