REPORT SUMMARY
COVID-19 AND INDIGENOUS PEOPLES’ ACCESS TO STBBI SERVICES: Summarizing a qualitative study Introduction The COVID-19 pandemic strained health care systems across Canada. This included health care for sexually transmitted and blood-borne infections (STBBIs), which are infections passed through sexual activity or blood. First Nations people, Inuit, and Métis people are disproportionately burdened by STBBIs compared to nonIndigenous people in Canada, primarily due to the ongoing effects of colonialism and the systemic inequities it creates within health care systems. To understand how the pandemic affected the accessibility, availability, and delivery of STBBI health services for Indigenous populations in Canada, a qualitative study was completed
by the National Collaborating Centres for Indigenous Health (NCCIH) and Infectious Diseases (NCCID) in 2021-2022. This summary explores key findings from the study’s full report COVID-19 and Indigenous peoples’ access to STBBI and related health services: A qualitative study, which is available on the NCCIH and NCCID websites.
Methods A National Advisory Committee (NAC) was created to guide the research process. The NAC included representation from national Indigenous organizations, Indigenous community-based organizations, Indigenous health service organizations, and academics with expertise in Indigenous health in
Canada. The study was granted ethics approval by the University of Manitoba Health Research Ethics Board. The study involved 50 one-onone, virtual interviews with self-identified First Nation people (43), Inuit (1), and Métis (6) people who used or tried to use STBBI services during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study also held two virtual focus groups with thirteen Indigenous and non-Indigenous STBBI health service providers and nine policy and decision-makers engaged in STBBI programming and services. Interview and focus group data were collected between February 2022 and July 2022. Once all the data were recorded, coding was used to find commonalities from the results.