Strategy Building Framework with Indigenous Partners across Alberta: Tying

This session presents emerging findings from a multi-phase Indigenous Partnership for Health and Community-led Policy Research (IPHCPR) initiative effort examining substance use, mental wellness, and system-level responses impacting First Nations communities across Alberta. Drawing on insights from six prior IPHCPR gatherings, bringing together Elders, leaders, service providers, frontline workers, and community members, our analysis identifies persistent challenges across policy, funding, treatment access, and governance systems, which continue to shape inequitable substance-use outcomes for Indigenous peoples.

Using the First Nations Mental Wellness Continuum (FNMWC) Framework as an analytic lens, we mapped community-generated challenges, barriers, and solutions across the continuum of care, revealing recurrent themes related to accessibility, resource constraints, governance gaps, and the need for culturally grounded, community-driven approaches. This session shares back these learnings and introduces the development of an outcomes-based Strategic Action Framework. This framework will be co-designed as a practical roadmap for Indigenous partners across policy, service delivery, community, and advocacy sectors to guide future strategies, interventions, and collaborations. By contextualizing evidence from research, engagement, and lived experience, this session aims to deepen participants’ understanding of systemic challenges and invite their participation in creating a collective, Indigenous-led path forward in upcoming co-development sessions in 2026.