How an Indigenous health centre in Montreal is making care more welcoming

Alison Northcott · CBC News

· Posted: Jun 21, 2025 4:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 10 minutes ago

As Shirley Pien-Bérubé walks done the halls of the Indigenous Health Centre of Tio'tia:ke, she pauses to constituent retired each the ways the Montreal-based session has grown since it opened successful 2023.

"Our services person expanded truthful much," she said. "We person a diabetic foot-care clinic, we person an optometry clinic, physiotherapy, intelligence health, objective psychologist, addictions worker, a spiritual healer."

Just wrong the main entrance, a array is acceptable up with sage and sweetgrass. Patients are invited to smudge oregon marque their ain medicine bundles. Care present is offered successful respective Indigenous languages, including Inuktitut and Cree.

Pien-Bérubé works arsenic a wellness navigator, accompanying patients and advocating for them wrong the health-care system. She says that's conscionable 1 of the services offered here.

The session aims to adjacent gaps successful wellness outcomes for Indigenous patients, which was 1 of the 94 calls to enactment of Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). Clinic staff also work to overcome deep-rooted mistrust successful the health-care system. Data from a caller Statistics Canada survey recovered astir 1 successful 5 Indigenous radical reported experiencing unfair treatment, racism oregon favoritism from a health-care nonrecreational implicit the erstwhile year. 

Pien-Bérubé says patients astatine her session tin consciousness harmless and understood.

"They are yet being heard — aft however galore centuries? We are yet being heard," she said.

WATCH | Inside the Montreal clinic:

10 years aft TRC's calls to action

It's been 10 years since the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which looked to papers the interaction of residential schools, released its last report. In it, the commissioners pointed to "troubling gaps successful wellness outcomes betwixt Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Canadians."

Those see disparities successful the rates of babe mortality, diabetes and suicide.

Seven of the TRC's 94 calls to action focused connected health, including a telephone to place and adjacent gaps successful wellness outcomes, backing for existing and caller Indigenous healing centres and recognizing the worth of Indigenous healing practices.

Fay Virginia Desjarlais, the household unit prevention co-ordinator astatine the Indigenous Health Centre of Tio'tia:ke, says the session is simply a motion determination has been immoderate progress.

"There were gaps successful the wellness strategy to truly recognize the needs of the Indigenous radical surviving successful Montreal," she said. "People didn't consciousness safe. A batch of advocates, elders and antithetic organizations came unneurotic to accidental 'We request to bash something.' "

Desjarlais says hospitals and different health-care settings tin beryllium unwelcoming for galore Indigenous people. She has seen patients look favoritism and racism, and has been done it herself with a household doctor.

"I'm diabetic and I was explaining that I'm not feeling well," she said, adding that erstwhile she described her symptoms, the doc replied that erstwhile radical consciousness that way, "that's due to the fact that you're drinking." 

She says the doc past dropped her arsenic a patient because she had missed a azygous appointment.

"I couldn't judge it," Desjarlais said.

Improving entree to wellness care

According to the website Indigenous Watchdog, which tracks advancement connected the calls to action, portion 4 of the 7 calls related to wellness are successful progress, 3 person stalled, and nary are complete.

The site's publisher, Douglas Sinclair, says the telephone to place and adjacent gaps astir wellness outcomes has stalled successful portion owed to a deficiency of entree to authorities data.

"There's conscionable nary governmental volition crossed the state to benignant of co-ordinate activities to place that accusation and marque it available," Sinclair said.

"You can't make argumentation if you're moving successful a vacuum."

The national authorities tracks its response to the recommendations connected its website. It includes a wellness inequalities information tool available for users to visualise and "understand the size of inequities successful societal determinants of wellness and wellness outcomes."

Sinclair says that where determination has been progress, it hasn't been enough. He says access to wellness attraction remains a large contented for a batch of communities.

Building attraction centres successful the North

In Iqaluit, Nunavut, an addictions and trauma attraction centre called Aqqusariaq is presently nether operation that volition let radical to person culturally-based attraction successful the territory, successful Inuktitut, alternatively than having to question south.

"Travelling each the mode down southbound to person to instrumentality portion successful attraction and care, you are being removed from your connection and culture," said Kylie Aglukark, programme manager with addictions and trauma astatine Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated, a pact enactment that represents Inuit successful Nunavut.

"I'm hopeful that erstwhile this is up and moving that we person an accidental to physique centres successful each of Nunavut's regions," she said.

Beyond that, Aglukark wants to physique up the Inuit workforce for the centre and different services and to found much attraction centres successful much communities.

"It's precise important for Inuit to pb and person that accidental to supply the services successful Inuktitut," she said.

Dr. Terri Aldred, world pb with the National Collaborating Centre for Indigenous Health, says progress connected the calls to enactment astir wellness has been "moderate."

While she's impressed with caller Indigenous wellness clinics and healing centres like the ones successful Montreal and Iqaluit that are "rooted successful our ways of knowing and being," Aldred says such projects request to beryllium scaled up to conscionable the need. She says they besides request sustainable, semipermanent funding.

"Indigenous radical that are capable to entree those services volition commencement to person a antithetic narration with accessing wellness care," she said. "And we'll beryllium capable to physique spot with those providers, and we'll person a affirmative ripple effect.