Promoting resilience within public health approaches for indigenous communities

Abstract

Resilience within public health is conceptualized to be fostered through individual, community, and systemic initiatives that promote capacity through interconnected primary, secondary, and tertiary health interventions. Within community public health settings, particularly for Canadian Indigenous communities, an emphasis on interconnected, multisystemic interventions that promote resilience can be particularly useful. Fostering resilience within Indigenous health seeks to prioritize unique needs of individuals and communities, through both process- and outcome-based measurement. Given that Indigenous individuals’ needs may differ from non-Indigenous populations in Canada, careful consideration of how to best conceptualize, measure, and promote resilience is required. Tools such as the Native Wellness Assessment and the First Nations Mental Wellness Continuum Framework can be helpful to both measure and conceptualize resilience, as they can provide insight on what is considered to be best practices to increasing wellness within Indigenous communities. Such tools continue to prioritize the multisystemic promotion of resilience.