Public health surveillance systems involving Indigenous Peoples: a scoping review protocol to inform circumpolar mental health and wellness surveillance.

Authors

Sara Ferwati, Ivalu Katajavaara Seidler, Terri Rodak, Allison Crawford

Published in

BMJ open. Volume 16. Issue 10. Pages e120742. Oct 07, 2026. Epub Oct 07, 2026.

Abstract

Mental health and well-being are urgent priorities across circumpolar regions, where suicide and psychological distress contribute substantially to premature mortality and disability. Indigenous communities in Arctic and sub-Arctic settings continue to face profound inequities linked to colonisation and intergenerational trauma, while also advancing wellness frameworks grounded in cultural continuity, language, land and self-determination. Progress in mental health promotion and suicide prevention depends on timely, consistent and culturally relevant population-level information. Yet mental health surveillance remains fragmented, and the literature has not been comprehensively mapped to describe how public health surveillance systems are designed, governed, implemented and used in Indigenous contexts. This review aims to inform culturally grounded mental health and wellness surveillance in circumpolar Indigenous contexts. This will be achieved by mapping how public health surveillance systems involving Indigenous Peoples are designed, governed, implemented and used, and identifying transferable lessons for circumpolar monitoring.
This scoping review will follow the Joanna Briggs Institute methodology for scoping reviews and will be reported using Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews. Using a Population-Concept-Context framework, we will include peer-reviewed and grey literature published in the past 20 years (English and Scandinavian languages) describing public health surveillance systems implemented with, by or for Indigenous communities. This will cover the period of January 2006 to August 2026. Mental health, suicide, substance use and wellness-related systems will be prioritised. Searches will be conducted in MEDLINE, Embase and APA PsycInfo, complemented by targeted grey literature searching of relevant organisational and government sources. A health sciences librarian will execute all database searches and export results for screening. One reviewer will conduct the grey literature searches, documenting search dates, sources and retrieval decisions. Two reviewers will independently screen all records retrieved and extract data using a structured charting tool capturing system characteristics, governance and data stewardship, ethics, implementation considerations, uses of surveillance information and circumpolar relevance. Findings will be summarised descriptively and synthesised using inductive content analysis to identify recurring constructs, patterns and evidence gaps. The review is anticipated to commence in August 2026 and to be completed by September 2027.
Ethics approval is not required for this review of publicly available literature. Results will be disseminated through peer-reviewed publication, presentations to relevant Indigenous and public health partners, and knowledge products tailored to circumpolar surveillance planning.

PMID:
42843869
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 08 Oct 2026.

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