Since receiving an Innovation Fund award from the Canadian Foundation for Pharmacy in 2023, Dr. Larry Leung, his colleague Dr. Jason Min and their research team at University of British Columbia have laid the groundwork to pilot their clinical pharmacy and substance use services for Indigenous peoples. The pilot program will launch February 2025 at the Nuxalk Health and Wellness Centre in the remote community of Bella Coola in B.C.
“Our team, UPROOT, in collaboration with Nuxalk Health and Wellness, has had great progress to date on our project, which aims to build a Nation-specific pharmacy program,” explains Leung. The program will feature four key deliverables for the community centered around the theme of “we are medicine for each other.” These include general medication reviews and specialized ones for substance use disorders, as well as an online and in-person training program on Indigenous storytelling and traditional medicines for healthcare professionals in community, Nation members and select pharmacy students.
The team identified eight themes to guide program development which included the fact that pharmacy care should integrate traditional medicines and healing practices, and that pharmacists should respect cultural boundaries related to traditional medicines.
In putting together the program over the last few years, Leung and his team have discovered the importance of having both clinical and spiritual pathways of care, which will involve pharmacist referral to and participation in land-based healing programming. “We will also support the development of a Knowledge Keeper-led traditional medicines program, which will work in tandem with the pharmacist-led medication review program,” he says.
The pilot program will be integrated as part of existing home and community care services with a particular focus on in-person visits. Once the CFP funding runs out, Nuxalk Health and Wellness Centre has allocated specific monies for ongoing clinical pharmacy services, noting the importance of having care delivered in “community for community,” says Leung.
During the course of their research, the team also identified the need for Nation-specific cultural safety training for health professionals and staff participating in the project. “This has been one of the best by-products of this work and has led to the development of an online and in-person training program that is now open to Indigenous pharmacy students, and managed by our Indigenous partners,” says Leung. “We did not want the program to continue colonial ways of extracting information, which is why this deliverable was built.”
The timing of the project has been particularly favourable, as Indigenous communities in B.C. continue to seek better access to care and build their own primary care services. “We are ensuring that pharmacists are being integrated directly in existing programming and believe that the future will see more and more pharmacists providing direct patient care in Indigenous communities,” says Leung. “My hope is that this site will also provide future land-based learning opportunities for Indigenous and non-Indigenous pharmacy students and increase both the interest and skills required to provide culturally safe care.”
Future plans include replicating the model in another remote community and in an urban centre.