First Nation Elders have long relied on storytelling as a means to preserve and share history and knowledge. Now new research is underway to use traditional storytelling to help nurses provide culturally safe care for First Nation Elders with memory loss.

Researcher Co-Lead, Dr. Wendy Hulko of Thompson Rivers University and Practitioner Co-Lead, Elisabeth Antifeau of Interior Health have received a $213,700 grant from the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research through the BC Nursing Research Initiative.

The grant was awarded for the community-based research project Culturally Safe Dementia Care: Building Nursing Capacity to Care for First Nation Elders with Memory Loss, an ongoing collaboration between researchers, practitioners and Secwepemc Nation Elders.

“First Nation Elders have been an overlooked population in dementia research. Yet, dementia appears to be increasing among this group due to the aging demographic and the high rates of risk factors that are a consequence of colonization, such as diabetes, low socio-economic status, obesity, cardiovascular disease, and lower levels of formal education,” explains Hulko.

The research team, including nursing and social work academics from TRU and UBC and practitioners from Interior Health, will focus on translating findings from earlier research into front-line nursing practice using traditional storytelling and the Indigenous Cultural Competency training currently available to health authorities in B.C.

The process will include monthly round-tables with Secwepemc Elders in Kamloops, Williams Lake, and Chase to develop stories about caring for Elders with memory loss. Three groups of approximately 10 nurses employed by Interior Health and First Nations and Inuit Health will have their knowledge of and skills in culturally safe dementia care measured before and after the story telling and training.

The project builds on relationships and knowledge developed through the initial First Nations Perspectives on Dementia exploratory research undertaken by the project co-leaders, in collaboration with Elders from the Secwepemc Nation.

“Health care providers and First Nation communities have expressed the need for specialized training for nurses on cultural safety and dementia care, so that nurses can better care for First Nation Elders with memory loss both at home and in residential care” says Antifeau.

“At the same time in our initial research Secwepemc Elders identified traditional storytelling as a way to build nursing capacity to care for First Nation Elders” added Dr. Hulko.

Other researchers on the team include Dr. Colleen Varcoe of UBC, Gwen Campbell McArthur and Star Mahara of TRU, and Bradley Anderson of Interior Health. The Elder advisors to the research are Jean William (Secwepemc North), Cecelia DeRose (Secwepemc North), Estella Patrick Moller (Carrier), John Jules (Secwepemc South) and Evelyn Camille (Secwepemc South).

This exciting collaboration will occur now through December 2012.