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2022 Vanier Scholar, Kelsey Huson, from the Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology, was the recipient of Canada’s most prestigious graduate awards, for traditional healing and culture-related substance use disorder treatment transformations due to the COVID-19 pandemic: Impact on Indigenous patients and communities.

Kelsey’s proposed research will evaluate the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on accessible traditional healing and culture-related treatment for substance use disorders (SUD), including successes and challenges related to service disruptions and innovations. Qualitative interviews and talking circles with key stakeholders, clinicians, patients, and community members will be conducted in partnership with six Indigenous organizations.

Questions will explore SUD patients’ responses to the pandemic, as well as successes, challenges, and recommendations to improve access to, and quality of, traditional healing and culture-related interventions to promote recovery. Promising practices will be reported to enhance traditional healing and culture-related SUD treatment beyond the pandemic. The study will be guided by a Two-Eyed Seeing framework and will be conducted in consultation with an Indigenous research advisory council. Data will be analyzed using thematic content analysis. Study findings will be disseminated to Indigenous communities and organizations across Canada, as well as to federal and provincial agencies.

Click here to see the full list of recipients.