Training on Aboriginal realities | Quebec still far from its target

(Quebec) Quebec had not reached its target of training all health and social services workers on Indigenous realities as of September 30, 2022. Indeed, nearly 40% of network employees have still not not complete the mandatory training, ordered after the death of Joyce Echaquan.

Posted at 5:31 p.m.

Fanny Levesque

Fanny Levesque
The Press

The Ministry of Health and Social Services (MSSS) confirms that at the last report, dated September 26, 2022, 197,950 network employees (62.25%) had completed the 90-minute training course, entitled “Awareness of Aboriginal realities”. The program has been offered on a digital learning platform since 1er June 2021.

This rate also includes “training considered minimally equivalent” that may have been offered by health establishments, specifies the MSSS.

Several regional CISSSs have developed their own programs, such as in Abitibi-Témiscamingue or on the North Shore. It is therefore difficult to know precisely how many workers have taken the mandatory training deployed after Joyce Echaquan’s death in September 2020. However, the initial target was that 100% of employees had taken it by September 30, 2022.

The pandemic context of the past few months has presented its share of challenges in the deployment of training. However, considering the priority nature of the training, the target as initially set [à 100 %] remains. [A]No new date has been set at this time.

Robert Maranda, spokesperson for the MSSS, in an email sent to The Press

In the office of Minister Christian Dubé, we are committed to “accelerating the pace” in the months to come to achieve the objective. “That nearly 200,000 health care workers will be more aware of Aboriginal culture through this training is a giant step. Especially if we take into account the pandemic which has hit the network head on, and also the fact that around 15% of health personnel are absent from the network for all kinds of reasons”, it was indicated. .

Quebec had missed the interim target of March 31, when the MSSS had set itself the goal of having trained half of its workers. The Press reported that only 30% of employees had taken the training1. The MSSS nevertheless succeeded in doubling this proportion in six months.

Joyce’s death Echaquan at the Joliette hospital, under a rain of racist insults from the nursing staff, caused a shock wave in Quebec. In the weeks that followed, the Minister of Health ordered mandatory training for all workers in the network to make them aware of the realities of First Nations.

Faced with a slow deployment at the time, Christian Dubé had asked his deputy minister, Dominique Savoie, to “find ways” with the establishments to “accelerate” the process.

Radio-Canada reported in September that doctors had written to the board of directors of the McGill University Health Center (MUHC) to express their discomfort with the content of the training. In particular, we deplored the fact that Joyce Echaquan was not mentioned. It should be remembered that the development of the program was already in motion before the death of the latter.

A six-hour program, aimed at government officials, had been in preparation since 2018 as part of the Government Action Plan for the Social and Cultural Development of First Nations and Inuit 2017-2022. The Abenaki anthropologist Nicole O’Bomsawin and the professor at the University of Quebec in Montreal Laurie Guimond had at the time been responsible for establishing the content.

A 90-minute digest was produced to meet Minister Dubé’s requirements.

After the death of M.me Echaquan, the Legault government has ordered a series of measures to increase the cultural safety of First Nations within the health system. Over the past year, 12 liaison officer positions have been filled and as many “service navigator” positions, whose mandate is to support First Nations members in the network.

After backtracking on its commitment last March, the Legault government is committed to enshrining the notion of cultural security in the Health and Social Services Act in a second term. This is a recommendation of the Viens commission.


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