Northern Health’s Indigenous Patient Liaison (IPL) program provides a bridge between Indigenous communities, their culture, and health care providers. The role of the IPL is to help bridge the gap between Western and traditional medicine to ensure a health care system that honours diversity and provides services in a culturally relevant way.
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 Indigenous Community Engagement Advisor, Kelly Stalker, who works at Kitimat General Hospital (KGH).
“I feel privileged to be in this role in Northern Health,” says Kelly. “As a non-Indigenous person, I'm always striving to listen more, learn more, and be part of meaningful change in my workplace and in my personal life. I know I don’t always get it right, and I take the teachings with gratitude. I cherish the relationships I have developed.” Indigenous Patient Liaisons (IPLs) can assist patients and families with a variety of requests related to their health care, and if they can’t help directly, they can help make connections with the right people. An IPL’s concern for a patient’s wellbeing doesn’t begin and end with when they see you in hospital; they want patients to feel supported holistically with wrap-around supports.
Kelly has been in her role for the last year and a half and is dedicated to advocating for culturally safe and respectful care for all First Nations, Metis, and Inuit people who access care at KGH. Kelly was born and raised in Bowmanville, ON, on the traditional territories of the Mississauga and Ojibwe peoples as a settler of Scottish/English descent.
She has lived in what is now called British Columbia for much of her adult life and has worked and resided on several unceded territories across the province, including those of the Secwepemc, Silyx, Ktunaxa, Sinixt, Tsleil-Waututh, Squamish, Musqueam, and Treaty 8.
Kelly is grateful to be welcomed to the unceded territory of the Haisla Nation where she now lives, works, and thrives. When not at work, Kelly enjoys exploring the beautiful North and being with her kids, her friends, and her dogs.
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