Noojimo Health brings culturally specific mental-health care to Indigenous patients

When social worker, nurse and educator Bill Hill received long-awaited funding to establish a sacred Indigenous healing centre at a Catholic psychiatric hospital in Ontario – just 40 days before his retirement after a 42-year career – it marked not only a work milestone, but the beginning of something much bigger.

That pilot program, known as Biigiiskan, offered elder-guided psychiatry, a groundbreaking model where psychiatrists worked in collaboration with Indigenous elders, blending traditional knowledge with clinical care.

Everything was running smoothly until the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered in-person services in 2020 and Hill had to adapt fast.

Through Biigiiskan, he started running healing circles offered on Zoom, a new-to-him platform, with the goal of helping elders in remote communities get online, often for the first time. It was an improvised effort, but it worked. And it planted the seed for what would become Noojimo Health. Noojimo is an Anishinaabemowin word meaning “the mind is in motion toward healing.”

Hill had noticed while delivering a presentation to health-care workers up north that they were too overwhelmed to absorb what he was saying and clearly lacked resources, including basics like masks and vaccines.

The next morning, over breakfast, he declared, “We need an Indigenous EAP – something for us, by us.” By that, he meant an employee assistance program, not for corporate employees, but for Indigenous caregivers, nurses, educators and clinicians who were burned out and isolated in communities that had little or no mental health infrastructure in place.

This experience sparked a conversation between Hill, Randi Ray, principal consultant at Indigenous strategy firm Miikana, and Valerie Michelutti, an associate consultant at Miikana.

What is now known as Noojimo Health was founded in 2021 by Ray and led by Hill and Michelutti. Four years later, it remains the first and only all-Indigenous virtual mental wellness platform in Canada, serving more than 200 communities across the country.

Michelutti, who holds a master’s degree in neuroscience, brings both scientific knowledge and a lived understanding to the table.

“I understand how trauma shapes the brain – and how healing requires more than access. It requires safety, and safety requires relevance,” she says. “Noojimo creates space where Indigenous world views, cultural practices and lived experiences are centred, not added on. It allows people to receive care from clinicians who understand not only the impacts of colonization, but also the strength, language and knowledge systems that continue to guide our healing.”

This sense of safety and community is what sets Noojimo apart. The company connects to clients through a mix of traditional practices such as ceremony and healing circles and cognitive behavioural therapy. Whether patients are more Western-oriented or more connected to culture, the priority is offering culturally sensitive care.

In the broader Canadian health-care system, culturally safe services for Indigenous people remain limited and slow to develop. Though there have been small improvements, Indigenous communities still face considerable barriers to access, trust and effective care. However, Michelutti points to GreenShield as a strong partner in this mission.

“They’re not waiting for the system to evolve, they’re helping to shape it,” she says. “Their commitment to social impact, truth and reconciliation, and Indigenous-led wellness is more than talk, it’s action. Their social enterprise model prioritizes equity, prevention and community-driven care, and reimagines what health care can look like when it’s rooted in reciprocal relationships and designed to create lasting change.”

That relationship-first approach mirrors how Noojimo operates within communities. Trust and care are central, and so is the team that carries it all out, from the clinicians to the ‘office auntie’ who welcomes clients brave enough to call for help, a step that is often difficult for many of them.

“There are nearly 700 distinct Indigenous communities across the country, many of which continue to navigate health-care systems that were never designed with them in mind,” Michelutti says.

Looking ahead, she is optimistic about the future of culturally specific health care for Indigenous people. She says Noojimo is envisioning a future in which care expands beyond its current scope to include Indigenous-led psychiatry, nursing and other disciplines to create a virtual, all-in-one health platform.

And going back to Noojimo’s roots in Hill’s presentations for Indigenous care providers, the team hopes to further amplify clinician voices and advocate for sustainable funding models “that treat Indigenous solutions as central, not supplemental, to the future of mental wellness in Canada.”

Michelutti acknowledges there is a long road ahead. “It took seven generations to get here,” she says. “It’ll take seven more to fully grow. But the ripple effect has already begun.”

One in a regular series of stories. To read more, visit our Indigenous Enterprises section. If you have suggestions for future stories, reach out to [email protected].