Walking towards each other: Stories from pediatric rehab

We are excited to attend the 11th International Meeting on Indigenous Child Health, being held in Winnipeg, March 28 to 30, 2025.  We will be presenting our poster “Walking towards each other: Stories from Pediatric Rehab”.  It documents our ongoing journey as we work together with our Indigenous children, youth and families to create better rehab.

Purpose  

As Canada’s only stand-alone pediatric rehabilitation hospital, children and their families travel from all over Ontario for services. This approach follows the colonial model of healthcare delivery, where Indigenous children and families leave their communities and travel to hospitals. Many of our clients have experienced racism in accessing and receiving healthcare. We seek to co-create the rehabilitation experience by coming together with Indigenous children and their families during rehab by holding space for them to share stories of their experiences. The goal is to acknowledge their past traumas within the healthcare systems and take accountability and build trust. 

Methods 

Understanding the child and family supports a healing experience. We combine our family centred care approach with Two - eyed seeing and storytelling. 

Getting to know each other: From admission to discharge, we approach in the spirit of genuine curiosity, incorporating a trauma lens of ‘what happened to you?’ We inquire about cultural and spiritual needs. This important information is shared with the wider team to ensure consistency in care. 

Teaching and learning: We share stories with our staff and students so that they can learn the impact of hospitalization on the Indigenous children and families that we serve. 

Results/Outcomes  

This story is an example of how we co-create the rehab experience. A young Cree woman was very agitated. A Code White with injection of psychotropic medication and security presence was imminent. Staff partnered with her mother, a Cree Knowledge Keeper, so that the young woman could smudge with sage. The effect was powerful for the young woman, her mother and staff. The patient and her mother taught staff about smudging with sage and discussed plans to build a home for the eagle feather, as part of rehab. Patient and Family feedback: Families report feeling heard and respected. 

Conclusions

We continue to work to uncover our own biases and transform the rehab experience. Through the shared experience of co-creation we are working to change our hospital environment and processes to address inherent colonial healthcare and rehabilitation values. Among other things, this can also include offering traditional beading through therapeutic recreation, drumming through music therapy, incorporating being outdoors in nature daily, offering bannock with meals and developing a robust smudging policy that allows for indoor and outdoor choices.