WHO WE ARE
The Indigenous Primary Health Care and Policy Research (IPHCPR) Network is an Alberta-based research network for improving Primary Health Care with Indigenous peoples.
Our Mission
The IPHCPR Network aims to bring together and support Indigenous communities, researchers, health system leaders, and health service providers to share knowledge and create dialogue aimed at improving health outcomes with Indigenous peoples.
Our Vision
Our vision is to promote a renewed and transformed Primary Health Care system to achieve Indigenous health equity. We are aligned with principles and health legacy Calls to Action advocated by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC).
PRINCIPLES
Overview
Indigenous methodologies are respectful of and include Indigenous protocols, values, and beliefs that are important to Indigenous people. We aim to ensure that the Network’s community-engaged processes, capacity-building activities, and research are carried out in a manner that is resonant with Indigenous approaches to knowing and learning. Moreover, our knowledge sharing and exchange approach prioritizes the inclusivity and equality of all PHC stakeholders in generating knowledge and its diverse products.
Five guiding principles structure the theoretical underpinning of our Network, which is that the community-based, systems-engaged, decolonial, and Indigenous research paradigm that we promote is inherently transformative, with the explicit purpose of responding to the needs and improving the well-being of those that research and health services aim to support.
Principle 1
Community-based research serves as a vehicle for change and transformation within PHC systems.
Principle 2
A strength-based lens focused on resilience is essential for the pursuit of health equity with Indigenous populations.
Principle 3
Indigenous knowledge and ethics are central to transformation as they frame research, engagement, and knowledge for patient wellness.
Principle 4
The achievement of health for Indigenous populations and resolution of healthcare disparities requires addressing proximal, intermediate and distal determinants of health. Health and healthcare disparities are perpetuated by colonialization.
Principle 5
Measurement should be derived from involvement of the people for whom it matters; innovations and measurement can validate & align Indigenous knowledge with PHC.
Organizing Questions
The IPHCPR objectives center the Network in defining a transdisciplinary PHC and policy research platform, generating and synthesizing knowledge for transforming PHC, and employing effective knowledge exchange strategies. Within this Network we ask:
What is the nature of transdisciplinary knowledge effective for transforming PHC and policy for achieving health equity?
How can PHC be better equipped to address the upstream social causes of poor health?
If healing involves addressing impacts from multigenerational adverse life experiences impacting Indigenous people, what is needed for PHC to play a key role in this healing?
What are the most effective approaches for sharing knowledge about—and supporting the replication of—successful innovations across Indigenous communities and Indigenous health service delivery organizations?
What are the best and most culturally appropriate ways of assessing the impact of PHC innovations and policy knowledge on reducing health inequities for Indigenous populations?
Pillars
In the first 5 years of our CIHR-funded network (2019-2024), activities were organized around 5 objectives: 1) foster relationships, 2) establish a knowledge platform, 3) advance capacity through training & mentorship, 4) support meaningful community-based research & policy in the area, and 5) advocate for Indigenous primary healthcare system transformation through strategic knowledge sharing. Lessons learned in our first phase of funding is that equity-based governance that distributes decision-making has risk of becoming siloed if a network cannot organize to ensure that members and collaborators have multiple, ongoing opportunities to interact across activity areas.
To foster greater integration of people and themes across network activities, for the second phase of our network (2024-2029), three pillars organize us. These are:
Pillar I: Engagement and Reciprocity
Foster broad research relationships relevant to Indigenous PHC
Pillar II: Capacity Building
Support Indigenous and non-Indigenous people involved in Indigenous health research for community & workforce development
Pillar III: Knowledge Mobilization