App with cultural focus to provide addictions help

Developers say specialized Indigenous program aimed at rural, remote residents

Researchers are hopeful that a new app with an Indigenous cultural focus will provide increased support for people undergoing addictions treatment in rural and remote parts of Saskatchewan.

In its early planning stages, the app will become a reality with a $451,000 grant from Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).

A team of University of Regina researchers, along with the Metis Addictions Council of Saskatchewan Inc. (MACSI), will begin designing the app this summer.

When it comes to addictions treatment support, “You still have the access issues that we face in the northern communities,” said MACSI executive director Shauna Lafontaine.

“So with the app, we’re excited that you’re going to be able to get access to somebody at all times or to get information that will better assist you and let you know where your journey needs to begin.”

It will be like “having a counsellor without a counsellor in front of you,” said Randy Johner, team lead and an associate professor of social work at the U of R. “It’s a mechanism to keep reminding you of what you’ve learned while you were in treatment.”

The app will take nine or 10 months to design, said Johner, at which point MACSI clients will be among the first to test it.

Based on client feedback, the team will then test the app for a further three or four months before re-releasing it.

There are “many, many, many” health apps, said Johner, but few are culturally informed.

This app will reflect the Indigenous cultural programming offered through MACSI’s 28-day treatment programs in Regina, Saskatoon and Prince Albert.

“We offer teepee teachings, we use the medicine wheel concepts when we do programming, we have a spirituality component,” said Lafontaine, “so it just allows the comfort for the clients coming into the facilities.”

Johner’s grant is part of a $372-million CIHR investment announced last month.

Also benefiting from a grant is Shanthi Johnson, a U of R professor in kinesiology and health studies who is working on a home-caresupported exercise program for senior citizens.

Ralph Goodale, MP for ReginaWascana, was present to celebrate the federal funding at the U of R on Monday morning.

He said he’d like to see more Saskatchewan researchers apply for CIHR funding.

“The applications that come in are generally of very high quality,” he said, “there just aren’t enough of them.”

U of R president Vianne Timmons said the grants, totalling $937,000 for the U of R, are good news.

“We don’t have a medical school here, so the more funding and health research that comes here, it’s usually community-based work like we have now and it’s really a wonderful announcement,” she said.

So with the app, we’re excited that you’re going to be able to get access to somebody at all times or to get information that will better assist you …