Centering First Nations voices and community-led responses to BC's toxic drug emergency: Learnings from Phase 1 of FNHA’s Indigenizing Harm Reduction Study

PLEASE NOTE THAT AUDIO ISSUES ARE DUE TO INTERNET CONNECTION QUALITY DURING THE RECORDING PROCESS. HOWEVER VISUAL CONTENT AND AUDIO INFORMATION IS COMPLETE. Due to ongoing harms of colonization, Indigenous Peoples are disproportionately represented in toxic drug-related deaths in British Columbia (BC). With mainstream harm reduction services failing to wholistically address these disparities, Phase I of the First Nations Health Authority (FNHA)-led Indigenizing Harm Reduction (IHR) Study sought to understand BC First Nations perspectives of and approaches to harm reduction and identify wise practices in responding to the toxic drug emergency that could be used to form a harm reduction model for BC First Nations. This study is the first of its kind that aims to understand how First Nations communities in BC view and practice harm reduction and offers teachings that will be critical for institutions committed to ensuring health equity for Indigenous peoples. In this presentation, we will share results from Phase I of the study, gathered through conversational interviews and questionnaires with 56 service providers and First Nations people with lived and/or living experience of substance use across BC’s five health regions. We will discuss wise practices in First Nations-led harm reduction that embody community-led, wholistic, person-centered care options, and include culture, relationships, and land-based programming. We will then discuss ongoing gaps and barriers for First Nations people who use substances, and recommended paths forward for culturally safe and accessible services that ensure long-term wellbeing for our relatives who use substances. Finally, we will share how we applied our methodology, which embodied a Two-Eyed Seeing approach, to promote the use of culturally safe and relevant research methodologies with Indigenous peoples. Speaker’s bio: Ashley Simpson (MPH) is of Wet'suwet'en, Scottish, and English ancestry and a grateful guest on unceded, ancestral Coast Salish territories. She is a qualitative health researcher with a background in Indigenous community-based research and serves as Project Director of Indigenous Harm Reduction Research at the FNHA. Amiti Mehta (MPH) is a settler of Punjabi ancestry living on the unceded and ancestral lands of the Semiahmoo people. She is a mixed methods researcher with a background in public health, harm reduction, drug policy reform and works as a Senior Research Coordinator at the FNHA. Amiti contributed to writing this manuscript. Alya Govorchin (MSc) is a white settler of English/Croatian ancestry living on the unceded, ancestral territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish), and səl̓ilw̓ətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. She is a qualitative researcher with a background in harm reduction and Indigenous community-based research and works as a Research Analyst at the FNHA. Learning objectives: Understand how First Nations people in BC are navigating the toxic drug emergency and the systemic and social barriers they are facing in accessing harm reduction and substance use services Learn about wholistic, culturally based harm reduction practices currently being implemented by First Nations communities and organizations in BC, which can inform more equitable and responsive policy and service design Learn how research can be carried out with Indigenous communities in a good way—ensuring cultural safety, community control, and respect for self-determination—using culturally appropriate methodologies, including Two-Eyed Seeing and community-based approaches

BC CDC Presenter

6/17/2025 7:00:00 PM