Access to Health Services by Indigenous Peoples in the Arctic Region

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The delivery of high quality health care to indigenous peoples in the circumpolar areas poses significant challenges. These include the need to develop culturally sensitive health services for the indigenous Sami and the Inuit peoples taking into account language barriers, cross-cultural misunderstandings and racial discrimination. The goal is for health and social services to be of the same quality that is provided for the rest of the population. Entering into the health care system (access to care) and receiving appropriate health care and for the services to be effective (quality of care) are key factors in ensuring good health outcomes. Often the health and social services practitioners are perceived as representatives of majority cultural values and norms that have, throughout history oppressed indigenous peoples, resulting in a deeply felt mistrust of health care institutions. Current health policies and practices favour western standardized health care systems, where the voices of indigenous peoples are often absent. Circumpolar health care sys- tems must take into account the influence of indigenous peoples’ view of health and wellbeing and to develop specific interventions to increase access and utilization among indigenous peo- ples. This requires health providers to critically reflect on whether policies and practices promote or compromise indigenous health and wellbeing. Indigenous peoples should not be a passive con- sumer of health care, but rather an active partner in the development of high quality of care, that ensure good health outcomes for indigenous peoples’ in the circumpolar areas.