Establishing a Virtual Care Clinic for COVID-19 Screening and Treatment in First Nation Communities in Saskatchewa [Funder: Community Partnership Grant, First Nations and Métis Health Research Network]

This funding source will provide the infrastructure for the virtual care clinics and they willbe utilized for engagement. We will expand the Peer Health Advocacy and Research Wellness Network (PHArWN) that was a community-driven research response focused on health advocacy with FN people who have lived experience with HIV, HCV, or STBBIs and will extend to include diabetes, mental health and addictions, COVID-19 and traditional wellness. Peer health navigation is a promising solution to improving access to culturally responsive prevention, diagnosis and integration of care. We will launch the PHAWN and examine the process of the local adoption of a Peer Health Advocacy network as a virtually supported, culturally-responsive model (CRM) of care in the FN partner communities. Recognizing that we are in a new, COVID-19 era, we must build an integrated, collaborative, virtual clinic to assist FN CCHTs in disease screening, treatment and intervention clinics (VCC) within the FN partner communities.