Toolkit of Indigenous-focused approaches and evaluation indicators for health systems

Our team was thrilled to launch in November 2023 the “Toolkit of Indigenous-focused approaches and evaluation indicators for health systems”.

This toolkit was created in a partnership between Queen’s University and the Frontenac, Lennox and Addington Ontario Health Team (FLA OHT). Based on FLA OHT priorities, rapid literature reviews were conducted on the following topics:  

1.   Indigenous Peoples and Overall Wellbeing  

2.   Indigenous Peoples and Health Governance  

3.   Indigenous Peoples and Patient Intake and Navigation  

4.   Indigenous Peoples and Coordinated Discharge  

5.   Indigenous Peoples and Mental Health  

6.   Indigenous Peoples and Aging Well  

7.   Indigenous Peoples and Palliative Care  

The toolkit is developed based on the rapid reviews. It presents results in three formats with regards to each identified priority, namely: 1) Brief take-home points, presented in tables, 2) Summaries of a few paragraphs each, and 3) The full-length rapid reviews of each topic (Appendix I), including data extraction tables summarizing the content of each paper included in each of the seven reviews (Appendix II). These different levels of synthesis are provided so that the reader can engage with the toolkit at the level they wish, ranging from a brief bird’s-eye view of the topic all the way to an in-depth, comprehensive dive into the literature. In providing these different levels of synthesis, we hope the toolkit can be useful across audiences and interested parties.  

While designed with FLA OHT groups, tables, and partners in mind, we hope that this toolkit can be useful to other mainstream and Indigenous organizations in other regions, as well.

The toolkit is freely available for download at the following links:

Queen’s website:    https://familymedicine.queensu.ca/sites/familymedicine/files/inline-files/Toolkit%20-%20Indig-Focused%20Approaches.pdf 

FLA OHT website: https://flaoht.ca/blogs/resources/indigenous-focused-approaches