Behind the Pandemic in Aboriginal Communities - Interagency ...

through collaboration and shared responsibility.• For Aboriginal clients, a culturally safe health care environment considers theirhistorical context and honors who they are now; it respects interactions based onhumility and reciprocity and allows for a mutual exchange of information.• Relational care is an important Aboriginal approach to health care provision becauseit captures the physical, social, emotional, and spiritual dimensions of humanconnection.• Healthy care relationships foster positive outcomes for Aboriginal patients whoare accessing treatment and support, specifically when they are HIV positive.Without healthy care relationships many patients discontinue care because they feelstigmatized or judged.• Respectful care relationships reflect the seven sacred teachings: love, respect,courage, honesty, wisdom, humility, and truth.• Relational care operates in an environment of open communication, acceptance,and accommodation of desired level of care of Aboriginal people living with HIV. It ismindful of both short and long term stages of care.Community HIV Competence:• The most effective responses to HIV are generated and guided by communitymembers.• HIV competent communities have knowledge and skills to prevent HIV infections andto provide care and support to community members living with and affected by HIV;safe social spaces to discuss information about HIV and what this looks like in thecommunity; a sense of ownership over the problem of HIV in the community and asense of responsibility for finding solutions; confidence in the community’s abilityto respond to HIV; a sense of solidarity; and access to relationships and resources tosupport the community to respond effectively.• Responding to HIV/AIDS is one of many priorities that test Aboriginal communitycapacity. Issues such as safe drinking water, insufficient funding allocations, growingpopulations, substandard housing, high unemployment, and resource extractivedevelopments are significant obstacles to health and well-being. These issuesrequire immediate attention.86Self-Determination:• The important role of people living with HIV – particularly young people – andaffected communities in HIV responses is enshrined in the Principle of GreaterInvolvement of People Living with HIV (GIPA) from the Paris Declaration and theDeclaration of Commitments from the United Nations Special Session on HIV/AIDS.• The active and meaningful participation of people living with HIV and affectedcommunities in HIV helps to ensure that programs, services, and policies areculturally competent, relevant and, in turn, effective; that they strengthencommunity HIV competence; and that they nurture the resiliency of involvedindividuals.• Aboriginal self-determination occurs when the individual and community are incontrol of their situations. Self-determination is a right that was all too often takenaway from the First Nations, Métis, and Inuit in Canada. Communities all overCanada have been and are asserting their right to self-determination in many waysincluding regaining control of community infrastructures, land claims, treaties, andthe delivery of health services through health transfers.