Relational approaches to fostering health equity for Indigenous children through early childhood intervention*

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper reports on key findings of a critical qualitative inquiry undertaken with an Indigenous early child development (ECD) program in Canada, known as the Aboriginal Infant Development Program (AIDP). In depth, semi-structured interviews were used to obtain the perspectives of: Indigenous caregivers and Elders, AIDP workers, and administrative leaders. The findings centre on: (1) a relational perspective of family wellbeing that emphasises the inseparability between child health inequities and the impact of structural social factors on families’ lives, and (2) how AIDP workers’ enact relational accountability to families by: (a) fostering cultural connections; (b) creating networks of belonging and support; (c) responding to caregivers’ self-identified priorities; (d) mitigating racism in healthcare encounters, and (e) deferring an ‘ECD agenda’. Rather than a one-size-fits-all model, these findings illustrate relational approaches to early intervention, characterised by a broader and socially responsive scope of practice and the deferral of a normative ‘ECD agenda’. This study has relevance in a variety of international contexts and to a broad range of disciplines and programs that serve families and children impacted by structural inequities.