By: Caitlin Kingsmill, News Writer
A housing site for Indigenous parents and children impacted by substance use recently opened in Kelowna. The site, named Tupa’s Lodge, will support eight residents at a time over a two-year period and is the first housing site in the interior of BC to offer these services. The project was launched by BC Women’s Hospital + Health Centre and Ki-Low-Na Friendship Society. The Ki-Low-Na Friendship Society provides community-based services to promote well-being and encourage the preservation of syilx/Okanagan culture and tradition in Kelowna.
Tupa’s Lodge received $1.8 million in provincial funding and will receive $195,000 annually for operational costs from BC Housing. They also received $400,000 from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. The housing site aims to provide “culturally sensitive and trauma-informed supports so parents can focus on their recovery and wellness while supporting their growing family.”
The Peak interviewed Darci Skiber, executive director of mental health and substance use at the Women’s Hospital + Health Centre. Skiber leads the perinatal substance use program and the families in recovery (FIR) program there. Both programs support pregnant individuals and new parents who are substance users. Through this work, Skiber helped identify the need for a site like Tupa’s Lodge.
Skiber said that about 75–80% of patients served in FIR are Indigenous. Health inequities faced by Indigenous Peoples reflect systemic disadvantages rooted in colonization and stigma surrounding substance use which exacerbate their negative impacts. “[We] started to recognize that as we are supporting our patients and familles to leave the hospital, we need to also be creating programs that reflect that focus on culturally-grounded care.”
She explained the importance of offering substance use and housing services specifically to the perinatal population, referring to the period directly before and after childbirth. “It’s really about creating services where women feel safe to ask for some help and not have that fear of stigma, or not getting the services that they need, or losing their children.”
She also emphasized the importance of integrating Indigenous cultures and values into the services offered at Tupa’s Lodge. For Skiber, that means trying to break away from the heavily regulated and structured nature of many existing healthcare and housing programs, which she described as being “quite colonial in their structure.” Indigenous populations in Canada are also historically underserved by health care services.
“It’s such a relational approach versus, you know, we can be somewhat transactional sometimes in other healthcare spaces.”
At Tupa’s Lodge, the integration of Indigenous cultures involves “having Elders, knowledge keepers, or aunties who are floating through the space and there to guide and participate in ceremony and get people reconnected again.
“That doesn’t exist in a lot of housing spaces,” said Skiber.
