Before the JBNQA came into effect, social services for the Crees were funded by Health and Welfare Canada. Generally speaking, each Cree village had a dispensary served by two nurses. Specialists visited the dispensaries periodically. The first hospital in Cree territory opened in 1970 in Fort George.

The Cree Board of Health and Social Services of James Bay (CBHSSJB) came into being following the JBNQA in 1978 to provide health and social services to the communities on Category I and II lands. Most of the funding for the CBHSSJB comes from the Government of Québec. Under national programs for Canada’s Native peoples, Health Canada funds certain social and community programs offered in clinics or in Wellness Centres that are not the responsibility of the CBHSSJB.

The CBHSSJB was one of the first Canadian Native organizations to manage health services. It manages the Chisasibi regional hospital as well as the two CLSCs, one of which serves the coastal communities and the other the inland communities. Each community has a clinic which is a CLSC point of service. Since the end of the 1990s, the CBHSSJB has been running a rehabilitation centre for young people, including a youth centre in Chisasibi and another in Mistissini. Each village has a local health committee, and a CBHSSJB representative from the community sits on this committee, which sees to the implementation of CBHSSJB policies and programs within the community.