Hotii ts’eeda was pleased to fund the Dehcho First Nations (DFN) to hire a regional health and wellness researcher in summer 2020.

DFN is working towards a regional health & wellness vision that is based  on community needs. As part of this larger goal, DFN has been working internally and with partners on a historical backgrounder of Dehcho health & wellness, current health systems in the Dehcho, and best practices in health & wellness. These documents will be provided to the region (leadership, community members etc.) to assist in the formulation of a larger health and wellness vision.

The health and wellness researcher undertook data collection and research on Dehcho health and wellness background and current systems, reviewing and fact checking hundreds of documents relating to health and wellness.

From the final report on the project: “Having a local Indigenous person lead the research work brought an understanding of the Dene way of being, our culture, practices and protocols. This is vital when doing research work for the region. She also brought her own knowledge as a local person who has accessed health services.”