San'yas is a nationally recognized training program aimed at improving cultural safety for Indigenous people accessing health services.
San'yas means "way of knowing" in Kwak'wala. Kwak'wala is the language of the Kwakwaka'wakw Peoples. Northern Vancouver Island and surrounding areas are the traditional and unceded lands of the Kwakwaka'wakw Peoples.
The first San'yas training was designed by Indigenous educators in British Columbia in 2008. Today, San'yas Cultural Safety Training delivers Indigenous Cultural Safety (ICS) training across multiple sectors including health care, justice, policing, child and family services, education, business and government. This nationally recognized training offers an online, facilitated environment for learning about cultural safety. As of December 2020, over 120,000 people have taken San'yas training across multiple provinces.
Course content aims to:
- Increase knowledge of the history of Indigenous people in Canada
- Build self-awareness of biases and assumptions
- Strengthen the skills of those who work both directly and indirectly with Indigenous people to ensure they have access to culturally safe care and services.
San'yas is administered by the Indigenous Health department at the Provincial Health Services Authority in Vancouver, British Columbia. Our office is located within the unceded traditional and ancestral territories of the Tsleil-Waututh, Squamish, Stó:lo, and Musqueam Nations.
San'yas offers 5 different core Indigenous Cultural Safety (ICS) courses:
- Health
- Mental Health
- Child Welfare
- Justice
- Foundations
1 post-training course is available:
The Core ICS Health & Core Mental Health training are:
- Reviewed and approved by the UBC division of Continuing Professional Development
- Designated as an accredited self-assessment program by the Royal College of Physicians & Surgeons of Canada for up to 10.0 section 3 credits as defined by the maintenance of certification program
- Certified by the College of Family Physicians of Canada for up to 20 Mainpro+ credits
- Certified by the Canadian College of Health Leaders members (CHE / Fellow) to 5 Category II credits towards their maintenance of certification requirement.
Post-Training
From Bystander to Ally is:
- Certified by the Canadian College of Health Leaders members (CHE / Fellow) to 2.5 Category II credits towards their maintenance of certification requirement
- Designated as an accredited self-assessment program by the Royal College of Physicians & Surgeons of Canada for up to 5.0 section 3 credits as defined by the maintenance of certification program
For more information on the accreditation of specific courses, please visit the San'yas website.
In 2017, San'yas was recognized with the PHSA+ Award for their influential work towards structural change by empowering health care employees to become leaders in Indigenous cultural safety and to address racism and discrimination towards Indigenous people.
