About
The Métis Health Experience Program (MHEP) is a virtual service that supports Métis individuals, families, and communities across BC in navigating health care concerns, compliments, and feedback processes. The program provides a safe and supportive space for Métis-led conversations about health care experiences. Through relational support, advocacy, and story sharing, MHEP helps ensure Métis voices are heard and contribute to positive change within the health care system.
Eligibility
Métis Citizens and self-identified individuals across British Columbia
What the Service Provides
- Listen to and discuss your health care experience.
- Help you understand options available for addressing concerns or sharing feedback.
- Assist in preparing information for a concern, compliment, or inquiry.
- Provide connections to culturally relevant supports and resources.
- Collect stories to advocate for changes in health care.
More information is also available in the Métis Health Experience Guidebook and Frequently Asked Questions sections further down this page.
How to Access or Apply
We want to hear from you, let’s connect! How can we work together to better the health experience of Métis people?
Connect with us by filling out our intake form:
Contact
We can connect with you via videoconference, telephone, or email.
Related Ministry
Métis Health Experience Guidebook: Navigating Provincial Health Feedback
This is a resource for any Métis individual seeking to provide feedback about their health experience navigating B.C.’s healthcare feedback process.
More about the Métis Health Experience Guidebook
The Métis Health Experience Program acknowledges the barriers that Métis people experience when accessing healthcare feedback processes, such as lack of culturally appropriate feedback options, lack of awareness about care concern programs, issues of cultural safety and deep-rooted mistrust with the healthcare system. The Métis Health Experience Guidebook is a resource created to assist Métis individuals in navigating the healthcare concern, compliments and feedback processes available across BC. Métis experiences and voices deserve to be represented in BC healthcare. We hope this resource will empower Métis individuals by equipping them with the information to effectively engage with BC’s healthcare feedback processes.
This resource contains information about:
- The Métis Health Experience Program and how this program can assist Métis individuals navigating the healthcare feedback process,
- The healthcare feedback process and contact information for care concern programs (e.g., regional patient care quality offices, regulatory professional colleges, etc.),
- Self-care and cultural wellness tips.
For more information, please feel free to contact our Métis Health Experiences Advocates at healthexperience@mnbc.ca.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can Métis submit concerns directly to the Métis Health Experience Program?
The Métis Health Experience Program can receive feedback, concerns, and compliments regarding a health experience using the intake process on our webpage. Currently, the program cannot submit a concern on a person’s behalf to a regional Patient Care Quality Office, B.C. Ombudsperson, etc.
However, we can guide you through the process of submitting feedback depending on which avenue you choose. There may also be escalations that require Métis Health Experience Program intervention. Contact healthexperience@mnbc.ca for more information.
What if I don’t want to submit a formal concern, compliment or feedback. What support is available for me?
The Métis Health Experience Advocate is available to hear about your health experiences, truths, and stories. Additionally, with your consent, the Métis Health Experience Advocate will document your experiences and truths to help improve health care, mental health, and harm reduction services across B.C. for Métis.
What does ‘health experience’ mean?
This entails any experience a Métis person has had accessing health care, mental health and wellness services. Examples include but are not limited to:
- Lack of communication in care planning
- Unexplained medical charges
- Feeling unsafe when accessing services
- Not receiving culturally appropriate care
- Delay in receiving care
Can the Métis Health Experience Program advocate for an individual’s care?
The Métis Health Experience Program (MEHP) can advocate for someone’s care if they are experiencing harm while actively receiving care (e.g., currently in hospital or receiving services). These could include, but are not limited to, not receiving care due to racism and/or discrimination, inappropriate pain management, and poor patient care resulting in severe harm.
MHEP advocates for care after the experience has happened by helping Métis share their experience with the various feedback processes. The program does this by providing information regarding the various feedback processes and options available to you should you choose to submit a concern, compliment, general feedback, or request for information.
The Métis Health Experience Program advocates for Métis voices to be heard within all sectors of health and wellness services through relationship building, working groups, policy review, and education.
Does the Métis Health Experience Program provide cultural supports?
Yes, the Métis Health Experience Program does provide cultural supports as we strive to offer culturally appropriate care that supports Métis health and wellness. If you have submitted a concern and are currently going through the review process at the Patient Care Quality Office (PCQO), B.C. Ombudsperson or Patient Quality Review Board, we are available to help. The Métis Health Experience Program offers connection and access to culturally appropriate resources within MNBC or within your local community.
What information can the Métis Health Experience Program provide?
Any information related to health experience concerns, compliments, and feedback. These may include, but are not limited to, patient rights, regional Patient Care Quality Offices, Patient Care Quality Review Board, BC regulatory colleges (e.g., physicians, nurses, etc.), B.C. Ombudsperson, and Human Rights Tribunal.
Do you have access to my health or medical information?
No, the Métis Health Experience Program is unable to access any health or medical information on your behalf.
What experiences does Métis Health Experience Program not cover?
The Métis Health Experience Program does not cover anything unrelated to health, mental health, and wellness. We also do not provide any funding for health-related services.
What other work is being done with the program?
The Métis Health Experience Program is working with health system partners to find appropriate alternatives to the health concerns and feedback process that are inclusive of Métis and meet the recommendations of the In Plain Sight: Addressing Indigenous-Specific Racism and Discrimination in BC Health Care Report related to concerns and feedback.
We are also collecting stories of Métis experiences with the health care system to provide alternative avenues for concerns resolutions. If you wish to share your story, please contact a Métis Health Experience Advocate using the contact details below.
Email: healthexperience@mnbc.ca
Why is storytelling important?
Kihtêyak Elder Tom McCallum explains that “stories are a history of our people from many lifetimes and the stories are real. Storytelling was used in communities as a form of entertainment . . . because we have what we call a holistic approach. We include a lot of things in storytelling that we leave for the other person to be able to interpret themselves. It gets their mind going. It puts their experience together and validates them as a person who has the ability to be able to draw from that storytelling and relate it to their own lives.”
Tom McCallum, Métis Elder and storyteller
Métis author, Maria Campbell explains “there are different ways of telling stories. Some people would get up and they would recite really long stories; they would almost sing or chant them. Then there were stories that people played with fiddles and were part of fiddle dances. There were the stories that were told in the evening in the winter — and there were stories that had laws and taught us how to live good lives.”
Maria Campbell, Métis author, playwright, broadcaster, filmmaker and Elder