Students work to improve access to sexual health care for Indigenous women

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In Canada, many Indigenous women have unique and often traumatic experiences accessing sexual and reproductive health services.

Two Indigenous students are working to help change that with the Lifegiver Box — a low-barrier, culturally inclusive program that provides access to necessary sexual health products.

Piper Scott-Fiddler and Samantha Martin-Ferris hope the Lifegiver Box will help combat some of the stigma Indigenous women face when taking care of their sexual health.

The pair are doing their masters in the Women+ and Children’s Health Sciences program at the University of British Columbia and noticed that Indigenous women regularly deal with judgment and stigma when accessing sexual health care.

“A lot of this is nobody’s fault of their own,” said Martin-Ferris. “It’s because of colonization that Indigenous communities … fear to really be having those conversations with doctors because there is a fear of having agency taken away.”

“It just shows that there needs to be access to culturally safe care, whether that’s within community or within a space that they’re comfortable in,” adds Scott-Fiddler.

Martin-Ferris said the stereotyping that happens to Indigenous women plays a huge part in their experiences at the doctor’s office or their lack of willingness to visit a primary care provider.

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“Something that we really see in remote communities is the fact that there may be a lack of provider services and so because of it, Indigenous people may feel like they have to go with that one option,” said Martin-Ferris.

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“As we started shaping this project, we started talking to the First Nations Health Authority, and it was during that time that we were told that we can’t just go out and give pharmaceutical products without doctors and nurse practitioners,” said Martin-Ferris.

The project evolved and they continued having conversations with those who would benefit from the box, eventually determining that cultural tools for wellness should be included.

Martin-Ferris and Scott-Fiddler hope the box is adaptable; it can be a lending library, vending machine, or pantry.

And while the intention is for each box to include basic sexual health products — like condoms, Plan B, pregnancy tests and educational pamphlets — and traditional medicines, what’s included will be up to the community.

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The pair recently won first place at the World’s Challenge Challenge and with that $30,000 to help fund their pilot project.

“That looks like having the Lifegiver Box in four different communities, and from that we really hope to be able to establish metrics, guidelines as well as best practices when it comes to setting up these boxes in communities,” said Martin-Ferris.

“We hope to be able to set up 26 different locations over the next five years and if we manage to do that, that could potentially look like 50 per cent coverage for Indigenous nations across B.C.”