Supporting Indigenous Kinship Caregivers

Abstract

This article reports on data shared by Indigenous kinship caregivers in a larger study on kinship care conducted in British Columbia (BC), Canada. There is a significant amount of research on kinship caregivers, but little of it focuses specifically on Indigenous carers. The findings presented here add to that small but growing body of literature. The larger study was done in partnership between Parent Support Services of BC (PSS), a charitable non-profit organization that supports kinship caregivers in BC, and the University of Northern BC (UNBC) (Burke et al. 2022). Data for this secondary analysis arose from surveys that focused on the experiences and needs of kinship caregivers. The findings suggest that supports should be delivered in ways that acknowledge the heterogeneity of Indigenous peoples and respond to individual needs, that programs should be designed in ways that support caregivers’ efforts to heal from the impacts of colonialism, and that policies designed for Indigenous kinship carers should be evaluated to ensure their efficacy. Suggestions regarding future research include research that focusses on the optimism that exists among kinship caregivers despite the challenges they face, research on non-grandparent caregivers, and research that is designed to be culturally sensitive to Indigenous peoples.