CULTURAL SAFETY AND RESPECTFUL RELATIONSHIPS
IMPROVING ACCESS TO QUALITY HEALTH CARE FOR INUIT RESIDENTS OF INUIT NUNANGAT: A fact sheet for non-Inuit practitioners Prepared by Muckpaloo Ipeelie (CEO, Urban Inuit Identity Project Inc.; Medical Lab Technologist)
Inuit residents of Inuit Nunangat face significant challenges in accessing high quality and equitable health care services due to their unique geography. Inuit Nunangat – the “homeland” of Inuit – is comprised of Inuvialuit (Northwest Territories), Nunavik (Northern Quebec), Nunatsiavut (Labrador), and Nunavut. The majority of Inuit (69%) lived in this region in 2021, mostly in sparsely populated and remote communities (Statistics Canada, 2023). Due to these geographic conditions, health services are often not available, and recruiting and retaining health professionals can be difficult, leading to critical shortages of medical personnel (Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami [ITK], 2021; National Collaborating Centre for Indigenous Health [NCCIH], 2019). Oftentimes, communities must rely on nonresident health professionals who
rotate in and out of Inuit regions from southern hospitals (ITK, 2021). In fact, Nunavut has one of the lowest ratios of physicians per 10,000 population in Canada and relies heavily on nurses to address community health needs (Canadian Institute for Health Information, 2023). A lack of telecommunications infrastructure and limited access to diagnostic services, specialist health services, and hospital care further constrain access to health services (Huang et al., 2023; ITK, 2021). It is thus common for Inuit patients to be transported to hospitals located in southern hubs for medical emergencies, hospitalization, appointments with medical specialists, and diagnosis and treatment (NCCIH, 2019).
Accessing health services in southern hubs can be very stressful for Inuit patients, as they must travel long distances, often without the support of family and community members, and face financial and personal hardships, loneliness, and fears and anxieties about unfamiliar healthcare environments (NCCIH, 2019). For instance, Tauni Sheldon, an Inuk woman with ancestral ties to Nunavik, who now lives in Ontario, shared the distressing experience of her elderly mother’s late cancer diagnosis during the COVID-19 pandemic (personal communication, March 1, 2024). The diagnostic delay led to the growth of a significantsized tumor, necessitating care in Montréal. Not only did her
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