Indigenous cultural safety training for social services and social work in Canada: a PRISMA scoping review

Indigenous Peoples have been impacted by racist colonial policies and practices intended to assimilate or eliminate them into general society in Canada with social work being one of the primary tools. Using PRISMA, we examined 14 articles that matched our criteria of providing cultural safety interventions to social services or social work professionals, students or faculty. We found these cross-cutting themes: Lack of knowledge or confidence working with Indigenous peoples; Cognitive dissonance between Indigenous and personal worldviews; Self-reflection; Implementing trauma-informed practice that is specific to Indigenous peoples; and Lack of resources (human, financial, and education). Clear terminology is needed for cultural safety in social work research. Indigenous cultural safety will increasingly be required in social work and allied social services. We recommend research that examines the development, implementation, and evaluation of Indigenous cultural safety in social work.