Overview
Delivery method
Online
Duration
Audience
All HC and PHAC Employees
Description
This project explores the various health outcomes associated with Adverse Childhood Experiences
(ACES), with a specific focus on Indigenous communities globally. While ACEs are widely recognized as contributing to poor physical and psychological outcomes, they are reported to occur more frequently among Indigenous populations due to intergenerational trauma and the lasting impacts of colonization. Despite this, limited research has examined the applicability and cultural validity of the ACE framework within Indigenous contexts, or how interventions addressing social determinants of health could mitigate these impacts.
The aim of this research is to critically evaluate the utility of ACEs in Indigenous health discourse and explore culturally grounded strategies to inform systemic interventions while seeking to identify approaches to overcome barriers that hinder access to appropriate care. By centring Indigenous perspectives and solutions, this research seeks to inform culturally responsive policy and health care practices that address the root causes and long-term effects of ACEs in Indigenous communities.
Biographies
Dr. Suzanne (Ethsi) Stewart, PhD, C.Psych., is the TC Energy Chair in Indigenous Health & Wellbeing and Director of the Waakebiness Institute for Indigenous Health at the University of Toronto. She is a member of the Yellowknives Dene First Nation and a registered psychologist. Her research interests are Indigenous mental health and homelessness and Indigenous research ethics. She has over 20 years of experience with community driven research and clinical practice aimed at breaking barriers for Indigenous youth and families in mental health and healing.
Darienne Russell is a Social and Behavioural Health Sciences PhD student at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health and a research assistant at the Waakabiness Institute of Indigenous Health Research (WIIH). She is a member of Tl’azt’en Nation, and her research interests include Indigenous women’s safety and well-being, homelessness, and community-based healing. She contributes to multiple CIHR-funded research projects through WIIH including Indigenous mental health and sexualized violence; urban Indigenous homelessness; Indigenous youth mental health and the climate crisis; and Indigenous conceptions and impacts of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs).
