The IPHCC 2020 Tools of Resilience Report: Addressing the wellbeing needs of Indigenous people by honouring culture as treatment provides an understanding of Indigenous community-governed MHA programs and services in Ontario.

• Culture—that is, Indigenous ways of knowing and being—lies at the centre of wholistic wellbeing, as it provides the means of re-establishing balance across all areas of the self. In practice, this means that care is not divided into separate silos for physical health, traditional healing, mental health, health promotion, etc. Instead, services provided by Indigenous hHealth cCentres simultaneously address clients’ physical, spiritual, emotional, and mental needs.
• As the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC, 2015: 160) observes, “Indigenous peoples have the right to physical and mental integrity, as well as the right to equal enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health.” In order to ameliorate health disparities, it is necessary that “Indigenous peoples have the right to be actively involved in developing, determining, and administering health programs that affect them. Indigenous peoples also have the right to traditional medicines and to maintain their traditional practices” (TRC, 2015: 160).
• Indigenous Health Centres in Ontario aim to fulfill these rights by providing comprehensive primary health care, including MHA services. Because of their accountability to the Indigenous communities they serve, only Indigenous-governed health centres are able to provide care that is culturally safe. They create environments where clients feel comfortable, respected, and supported. However, in order to fully actualize this vision of self-determination in health care, Indigenous Health Centres need to be able to provide a full continuum of programs and services for clients with MHA challenges.