Get Involved with the Digital Health Initiative

Indigenous communities still struggle to access health data in a timely way – a gap that places these communities at severe risk in the face of COVID-19.

Back in April, we heard from our partners and Advisory Council about the struggles that they were facing accessing health data. They made it clear that we should focus our efforts on real-time data collection. As a response, we developed a mobile application (app), for IOS, Android, and the web. This app is developed to allow health directors to refine the questionnaire to reflect local community priorities. It also allows them to examine the data as it is collected from their local region.

The app takes a holistic approach that looks at the physical, mental, emotional, environmental and cultural aspects of health and wellbeing. Although the impacts of the pandemic will be tracked, the app enables communities to document their successes when it comes to responding to Coronavirus. We anticipate that First Nations communities across the prairies, and potentially across Canada will participate in this project. In so doing, we will help address this critical shortage of timely, culturally appropriate health data in ways that serve the needs of these communities and the general Canadian public.

For more information and to get your community involved, check out our webpage HERE!

Watch one of Our Webinars

Miss a webinar? Rewatch any of them HERE!

Check out some of our previous webinars on land based education, food sovereignty and resource development during the COVID-19 pandemic. We feature panel discussions and interactive conversations on a variety of topics relevant to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Submit a Community Story

What is your day-to-day reality living with COVID-19 in an Indigenous community?

You can share a photo, video, or written story with us by emailing us at info@covid19indigenous.ca

In your photo, video, or story, tell us a bit about yourself and your community, plus:

  • the impacts and changes you’ve seen in your life/community because of COVID-19 and/or
  • the ways you/your community are responding to these changes (e.g. closing the community to outsiders, picking and sharing medicines, protecting Elders…) and/or
  • your thoughts on the future. How will this time of COVID-19 affect you and your community in the near and far future?

We will share these on our facebook and website. This will be a way for Indigenous community members, as well as the wider public, to learn what’s happening in Indigenous communities across the country, and connect with one another.