TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2019//
TI  - Everything Is Related and It All Leads Up to My Mental Well-Being: A Qualitative Study of the Determinants of Mental Wellness Amongst Urban Indigenous Elders
JO  - British journal of social work
A1  - Schill, Kaela
A1  - Terbasket, Edna
A1  - Thurston, Wilfreda E.
A1  - Kurtz, Donna
A1  - Page, Stacey
A1  - McLean, Freda
A1  - Jim, Randy
A1  - Oelke, Nelly
SP  - 860
EP  - 879
VL  - 49
IS  - 4
N2  - Indigenous peoples in Canada often experience a greater burden of poor health and wellness relative to non-Indigenous Canadians due to a legacy of colonisation and racism. However, Indigenous mental wellness outcomes vary by community, and it is essential to understand how a community has been impacted by the determinants to improve mental wellness outcomes. This article shares insight from a research partnership with the Ki-Low-Na Friendship Society, an urban Indigenous community service organisation. The study used a decolonising, qualitative methodology in which urban Indigenous Elders shared their knowledge of mental wellness and experiences of services and supports. Elders described mental wellness holistically, connected to their relationships, land, language and culture. They described several determinants of wellness including identity, poverty, transportation, abuse and trauma. Elders shared experiences of culturally unsafe care and identified colonisation as root causes of poor mental wellness. They shared how some determinants affect urban Indigenous communities uniquely. This included limited transportation to cultural activities outside urban centres, such as medicine picking, the importance of urban organisations (such as Aboriginal Friendship Centres) in developing social support networks, and the role of discrimination, racism and inequitable care as barriers to accessing services in urban centres.<p />
LA  - en
SN  - 0045-3102
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bcz046
ID  - ref1
ER  -