We Will Take Good Care of the People

Scenario:
Your team is working on a new strategic plan or clinical program. After finishing the first five modules, you realize that the needs of Indigenous peoples and cultural safety haven’t been brought up yet. You’re unsure of the best way to raise this issue with the group.

How a coach can help:
A coach can guide you on how to confidently and respectfully bring up cultural safety, fostering an inclusive environment where these important issues are addressed without disrupting team dynamics.

Scenario:
After completing Level 2, you’ve been reflecting on a time when a colleague gave you feedback about your interactions with Indigenous patients. You realize you responded defensively and want to work on being more open to feedback moving forward, so you can provide more culturally safe care.

How a coach can help:
A coach can support you in exploring why you responded defensively and help you develop strategies to receive feedback constructively, making it easier to integrate new learnings into your practice.

Scenario:
After completing the module on anti-Indigenous racism in healthcare, you’re starting to see things on your clinical unit differently. You feel uneasy about some of the ways Indigenous people are discussed and want help finding a way to speak up without damaging your relationships with colleagues.

How a coach can help:
A coach can help you identify effective communication strategies to address anti-Indigenous racism sensitively, empowering you to speak up confidently while maintaining positive working relationships.

The client plays a crucial role in creating a meaningful coaching experience through active participation and commitment. Their responsibilities include:

• Positive intention: Arriving with a question and a desire to grow.
• Respect: Approaching discussions about Indigenous peoples with thoughtfulness.
• Commitment to growth: Reflecting on areas for improvement and taking steps forward.
• Follow-through: Acting on the strategies or plans developed during the session.

Corrine Clyne is Swampy Cree Iskwew hailing from Kinosao Sipi – Norway House Cree Nation on Treaty 5 Territory.

A registered occupational therapist, Corrine has spent much of her career supporting care in First Nations communities, including a placement in Pinaymootang where she worked with older adults to create a culturally-relevant dementia program and toolkit and Lake Manitoba First Nation where she implemented a community walking program. Since 2021, she has worked with pre-school children in several different First Nations communities through Jordan’s Principle.

A dedicated learner, Corrine has completed a master’s degree in occupational therapy from the University of Manitoba, a bachelor’s degree in conflict resolution studies from the University of Winnipeg, a geriatric certificate from McMaster University and an Indigenous Women in Leadership program through Coady Institute at St. Francis Xavier University. She is currently pursuing a PhD in applied health sciences at the University of Manitoba.

In addition to her work and studies, Corrine recently took on a new role, as a coach and resource for health staff, faculty members and students completing We Will Take Good Care of the People.

“My passion for advocating for Indigenous clients to receive culturally safe care within the health-care system motivates me,” she said. “As both a patient and a health practitioner of Indigenous background, I understand the significant impact this access has on overall health. My goal is to educate and collaborate with others to help them become more culturally safe practitioners.”

Corrine is deeply committed to advocating for First Nations to receive culturally safer health care and looks forward to supporting participants along their learning journey, particularly during moments that may feel uncomfortable.

“My advice [to participants] is to sit with the discomfort and work through what is making them uncomfortable. We all come with our own journey, and it is okay to ask for help.”

Corrine works closely with First Nation clients in various capacities and was recently recognized for her outstanding contributions to the field of occupational therapy, with the prestigious Award of Merit from the Canadian Association of Occupational Therapists (2024).
Beyond her professional endeavors, Corrine finds joy in being a dog mom to her miniature pinscher, Coda, and cherishes her roles as an aunty, friend, and sister.

Sage Guiboche is Cree and Métis with mixed European ancestry. She grew up urban Indigenous in Winnipeg, with family ties to Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation (maternal) and the St. Laurent area of the Red River Métis Nation (paternal).

As a registered nurse, Sage has worked in a variety of roles since her graduation in 2016, but has spent most of the last five years in community working as a public health nurse. Her experiences motivated her to become part of system-wide changes within Manitoba’s health system, taking on a coaching role that will have her playing an active role in an initiative that promotes and fosters anti-racist and culturally safe care spaces.

“I wanted to be part of Giga mino ganawenimaag Anishinaabeg (We Will Take Good Care of the People) to hopefully be part of system-wide changes within our health-care system by encouraging clinicians to understand and contextualize how past and present colonial and oppressive systems have impacted Indigenous/BIPOC access to health and wellness,” she said. “The health-care gaps experienced by our community are ongoing and our relatives and communities deserve better.”

Sage acknowledges that systemic change will take time but is committed to offering her voice to efforts that will create health and social services that better view people as a whole, take into account their experiences and strengths, and work to remove barriers to their health and well-being.

“I hope that over time, education and understanding will result in actionable changes in our health system that will foster better patient relations and health outcomes.”

Dr. Kaitlin Hogue is of mixed Red River Métis and settler ancestry. Born and raised in Winnipeg, she spent her formative years living in St. James, close to where her ancestors lived and ran The Passage across the Assiniboine River.

After completing medical school at the University of Manitoba in 2015, Kaitlin chose to specialize in pediatrics, completing a pediatric residency in 2020, and a pediatric emergency medicine fellowship in 2023.

A consultant pediatrician with Ongomiizwin Health Services since 2021, Kaitlin supports health services in two northern communities in addition to her work at HSC Children’s emergency department, a role she began in 2023.

“There is so much evidence of the significant health inequities faced by Indigenous patients and that gaps in health outcomes are actually growing,” she said. “Many within the health system do not have an understanding of how this impacts Indigenous people in our day-to-day interactions.”

She added, “This role called to me as a way to participate in improving awareness and assisting other health-care workers in providing more culturally safe care.”

Kaitlin recognizes there may be moments in the training when participants feel discomfort or distress in the information presented.
“I urge them to pause and reflect on those feelings and acknowledge that these feelings are common when discussing racism, which is why many people shy away from the topic,” she said. “I would suggest if someone is feeling comfortable in their antiracism work, they are probably not being challenged to learn and grow. Let the feelings sit for a while, then connect with a coach to dive deeper into the concepts and remember that the more we lean into this discomfort, the more we grow in our antiracism journey and the safer our patients will be.”

Surrounded by children during her work hours, Kaitlin spends much of her time outside of work with a child on her hip, or a book in her hands and asks course participants to inquire about her favourite Indigenous reads.

Maynan nitisihkáson, Maynan Robinson, is Cree and Métis, born and raised in Winnipeg. Her dad is from Bunibonibee Oxford House Cree Nation and her mom is Métis with roots in St. Laurent and Peguis First Nation.

Maynan graduated from the University of Manitoba in 2013 with a master of occupational therapy. Over the course of her career she has worked in both hospital and community settings, including as a clinical occupational therapist and education coordinator with Jordan’s Principle at the Rehabilitation Centre for Children, within the Manitoba Renal Program and today, supports care in both community and facility with roles within the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority’s Health Outreach and Community Support team and at Health Sciences Centre.

Maynan was inspired by her work experiences to pursue a master of arts in Indigenous governance at the University of Winnipeg. She completed the program in 2020, in partnership with her family Elder from Brokenhead Ojibway Nation, the late Anishinaabe, Gerald Folster.
Together, Maynan and Gerald explored their parallel experiences as Indigenous patient and Indigenous provider at the Manitoba Renal Program.

It was during this work that Gerald shared with Maynan how his experiences with racism and stereotyping had prevented access to emergency stroke care, resulting in him being turned away from care twice, leading to permanent and lifelong disabilities.

Gerald’s experiences had a profound impact on Maynan not only because they hit close to home (Gerald had been co-facilitating a national healing conference with Maynan’s father and brother at the time), but because they were not the first personal story shared with her of racism within a health-care setting.

“I am grateful for Gerald’s teachings and find strength to continue in this work because these stories are not few and far between, rather every Indigenous person I know has a personal story of racism in the health-care setting,” she said.

Maynan suggests [to participants] holding space for any discomfort experienced during the training, as a lesson – and an important teaching.

“Gerald Folster taught that everything is a medicine: anger, laughter, discomfort. These are gifts from the Creator that teach us who we are. I suggest that participants try to non-judgmentally, and with kindness, sit with these feelings. These can provide a lot of great information for personal learning.”

Lee Sanderson is a Treaty status community member of Sagkeeng First Nation. His father and family are Anishinaabe from Pinaymootang, while his maternal family has connections to Kinosao Sipi (Cree), Scotland, and the area of Dominion City (paternal).

Lee is training to become a therapist and is currently a student in the University of Winnipeg’s Master of Marriage and Family Therapy program. Between 2020 and 2024 he was a full-time trauma worker on the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority’s Health Outreach and Community Support (HOCS) team, a role that involved him in complex scenarios supporting community members struggling with homelessness.

“As the trauma worker I was a counsellor on the fly. I would hold no wait list or limit in my visits with people, nor would I require people to only meet in a location of my choosing,” he said. “I would meet people by the riverside, in hospital, in shelter, or in the location they called home.”

Together, the HOCS team, comprising a social worker, occupational therapist, nurse, outreach, psychologist, psychiatrist and trauma worker, interacts with hospital teams, shelter staff, housing first teams, community clinics, and other organizations involved in community support. It is a role that motivated Lee to take on new experiences, including the role of “coach” with We Will Take Good Care of the People.

“I was motivated to take on this role in addition to my trauma worker role because it was time for me to change and add to my experiences.  More than four years of listening to stories of profound sorrow had an impact on my soul and fundamentally changed the way I see the world,” Lee explained. “I wanted to give my heart and mind and spirit a reprieve from the daily dose of severe trauma while continuing to support work that helps people and offers a reminder of the people who the system has failed.”

While Lee is training to be a therapist, his goal in the coaching sessions is to provide a safe space for conversation, healing and growth.

“Growing can hurt but everything is going to be okay. Our bodies hurt when we grow in our teenage years. Our hearts hurt when we lose love. Discomfort and distress in this training are okay because we have the tools to work through this, there is a path and there are many people in your corner cheering you on.  Racism is an old wound from neglect and fear and shame and misinformation, and we can totally change that with helpful information and compassion.”