A Coming Together of Health Systems Workshop: A Dialogue between Traditional Practitioners, Indigenous Community members and Health Professionals
Tsawout First Nation, 7728 Tetayut Road, Saanichton, BC (9:30 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.)
Workshop Objectives
Recognizing the importance of harmonizing traditional medicine with western medicine, this workshop invites traditional practitioners, First Nations community members, patients and caregivers, and health professionals from acute care settings to participate in an interactive half-day workshop.
This workshop is a collaboration between UBC Faculty of Medicine Digital Emergency Medicine, Vancouver Coastal Health, Island Health and First Nations Health Authority. In working to facilitate culturally meaningful care, Vancouver Coastal Health and UBC Digital Emergency Medicine through iCON (www.iconproject.org) jointly created a video and discussion guide featuring First Nations and Aboriginal Traditional Practitioners. After viewing the video, this workshop invites participants to share perspectives and engage in open and respectful dialogue to improve our BC health system to better incorporate traditional medicine, optimizing the health and wellness of all patients and families.
Our objectives are to:
- Improve health professionals’ understanding of traditional healing and the role of traditional practitioners.
- Introduce traditional practitioners’ perspectives to shift practices and incorporate traditional healing into the delivery of health care in acute care settings.
- Invite First Nations patients, caregivers and communities to share their perspectives and vision of attaining health and wellness.
- Identify areas for improvement in current processes in hospitals, emergency departments and other acute settings in BC to honour patients’ requests for access to traditional practitioners.
Anticipated Outcomes
- Improve participants’ appreciation of other perspectives, and expand their thinking of how to attain “patient-centered care” through traditional practices and acute care.
- Generate ideas and insight on how to best shape policies and strategies in acute care settings to facilitate access to traditional practitioners and practices for patients who request it.
- Establish suggestions for developing a practical toolkit for health professionals to use when interacting with traditional practitioners.
Join the Dialogue
If you are interested in participating in this workshop, please contact Jon Rabeneck (Jon.Rabeneck@fnha.ca) or Penny Cooper (Penelope.Cooper@viha.ca) to register. Registration will be open until March 13, 2017. Coffee and registration will begin at 9:30 a.m. Please check your email the evening before the workshop (March 14, 2017) for any updates. Refreshments and lunch will be included.
If you would like to provide any input or feedback on the content of this workshop, please contact Jon, Penny or Elizabeth Stacy (Elizabeth.S@ubc.ca).
