Research summary
There is irrefutable evidence that Indigenous people living in Canada experience racism in the health-care system. This directly affects their health outcomes, including their brain health. As Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Health Systems Safety, Dr. Pamela Roach is integrating anti-racist and decolonial approaches to develop culturally appropriate dementia services and improve the safety of health systems for Indigenous people.
She and her research team are designing, implementing and evaluating new patient experience measures with Indigenous People and families navigating the health-care system. They are also co-designing culturally safe, family-centred treatments for Indigenous people with dementia. In addition, they are developing performance indicators for measuring and monitoring Indigenous health and anti-racism medical education in order to improve the safety of health systems. Their research will address systemic barriers to improving population-level brain health and dementia care for Indigenous people by targeting research at the health systems, services and individual levels.