10 new Indigenous patient navigators will help build trust, Horizon manager says

Hannah Rudderham · CBC News

· Posted: Jun 10, 2025 10:32 AM EDT | Last Updated: 2 hours ago

Horizon Health Network is hiring 10 caller Indigenous diligent navigators, bringing the network's full to 12.

The web has seen the benefits of having radical successful this relation since Indigenous diligent navigators were hired for Fredericton and Miramichi hospitals in 2022, said Aaron Hatty, Horizon's determination manager of Indigenous wellness programming.

"We person seen galore affirmative outcomes from those relationships — seeing however patients consciousness supported, patients consciousness heard, little afraid," she said Tuesday.

Hatty said the needs of Indigenous radical and however they entree the wellness attraction strategy mightiness not be familiar to wellness attraction providers. This navigation is 1 portion of an Indigenous navigator's role, she said.

Another portion is "discharge planning," she said, and involves knowing whom to telephone for assemblage wellness nurses and intelligence wellness programming.

The idiosyncratic successful the navigator's relation besides makes definite patients person entree to culturally harmless care, including access to ineffable medicines and smudging. Patients could get assistance filing official complaints arsenic well, if necessary.

Hatty, from Sitansisk, oregon St. Mary's First Nation, said she graduated 20 years agone and started retired arsenic a caregiver successful a tiny First Nations community. 

Being caller retired of assemblage astatine the clip and having worked successful hospitals, she noticed a immense difference, particularly successful however Indigenous patients were treated erstwhile it came to discharge readying and transitions successful care.

Hatty said systemic racism is inactive existent wrong wellness attraction arsenic a whole.

"Systemic racism does not necessarily, you know, construe into idiosyncratic intentionally deciding to beryllium mean to idiosyncratic due to the fact that of their antithetic race," she said.

"It adjacent involves not having an knowing of these antithetic analyzable systems oregon how, you know, things mightiness beryllium functioning for this peculiar idiosyncratic based connected them being Indigenous oregon from an Indigenous community."

Two of the caller Indigenous patient navigators volition beryllium assigned to the Moncton Hospital and the Saint John Regional Hospital, portion the remaining 8 volition beryllium divided among the addiction and intelligence wellness and superior attraction teams.

Hatty said 1 of the biggest challenges that Indigenous radical mightiness look successful the wellness attraction strategy is astir trust.

She thinks these further diligent navigators volition assistance with that.

"We're not that acold distant from the residential schoolhouse system, we're not that acold distant from Indian infirmary systems, we're not that acold distant from expecting to beryllium treated poorly automatically," Hatty said. 

"Knowing that you person that trusted person, oregon you person idiosyncratic that adjacent looks similar you, oregon you cognize idiosyncratic is going to recognize you, tin marque a immense quality successful presumption of erstwhile you determine to entree attraction [and] whether oregon not you enactment and person services."