Northern Health’s Indigenous Patient Liaisons Worker (IPLW) program provides a bridge between Indigenous communities, their culture and health care providers. The role of the IPLW is to help bridge the gap between western and traditional medicine to ensure a health system that honours diversity and provides services in a culturally relevant manner.
The Indigenous Patient Liaison Program staff work in collaboration with key partners such as on-site staff, managers, and the Patient Care Quality Office to develop, implement, and evaluate processes to address the concerns and experiences of Indigenous people within the health care system.
In this article, we highlight and hear from IPLW Gloria Lattie.
“I love being an Indigenous Care Coordinator as it gives me an opportunity to help and assist our First Nations, Metis, and Inuit people of Canada. It is a great opportunity to be a part of the Truth and Reconciliation movement towards creating culturally safe environments within institutions,” says Gloria Lattie, Indigenous Care Coordinator at the University Hospital of Northern BC (UHNBC) in Prince George.
Gloria started working with Northern Health several years ago as an Indigenous Health Services Assistant at the Fort St. John Hospital before moving to UHNBC in the emergency unit on the Quick Response Team, and now to her current position.
Gloria loves that Prince George has a large Indigenous population and that she gets to see a lot of people from the Northwest, where her home community of Gitanmaax is located. Prince George is home for many of Gloria’s family, so it feels like home for her. Working within Northern Health has been a positive learning experience for Gloria, and she looks forward to seeing the Indigenous Care Team grow.
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