Seeing the Whole Person: What Students Learn When Patients Become Mentors
“It reminds them that we’re not just a problem or a diagnosis. We’re still human beings on top of everything else. We’re just like you. We just live with a few more challenges. And I always say people are. Tabs, temporarily able-bodied because even as we age, we need glasses, we might need hearing aids. It’s the only visible minority that anybody can become a part of at any given moment.”
Lelania Lloyd
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About the Episode
This episode features Mandy Young, parent of a medically and behaviourally complex child and a long-time partner with UBC’s Patient and Community Partnership for Education (PCPE). Mandy has volunteered for over a decade in the Interprofessional Health Mentors Program, both as a Health Mentor for health care students and as a Community Engagement Coordinator. Joining her is Lelainia Lloyd, a rare disease and disability advocate with 13 years of experience as a Health Mentor. Also with us is Pooja, now a first-year internal medicine resident in Winnipeg, who joined the program as a student mentee three years ago. Together, they reflect on how the Health Mentors Program fosters interprofessional learning, reshapes students’ professional perspectives, and improves the way that healthcare providers can interact in the system with their patients and with their colleagues.
Timestamps
01:21 – Introduction to the Health Mentors Program
03:59 – Getting to Know: Lelainia Lloyd
05:38 – Getting to Know: Mandy Young
07:27 – How the Program Changed Pooja’s Medical Training
08:52 – How Mentors Are Selected & Creating Safe Spaces
12:38 – What Makes a Good Mentor? Pooja’s Perspective
16:00 – “Orientation Is Christmas Day”: Meeting Student Groups
18:24 – Patients as Partners in Care
21:54 – Emotional Exchange: The Changing Role of Healthcare Providers
24:41 – Ableism and the Accessibility Barriers Embedded in the Healthcare System
27:22 – The “Third Option” and What It Means
35:16 – Mentoring as Mutual Learning
Mentioned in the Episode
UBC Interprofessional Health Mentors Program
Read the latest newsletter from the Health Mentors Program
Our Guests
Lelainia Lloyd, Health Mentor, UBC Interprofessional Health Mentors Program
Lelainia Lloyd is a rare disease patient, advocate & educator. It took 30 years for her to be diagnosed with Neuromyelitis Optica (NMO), which causes blindness and paralysis when the immune system attacks the spinal cord and optic nerves. Lelainia is the writer and host for NMOSD Your Way, a global podcast series about living well with NMO. She is an international guest speaker and has published four papers on patient-centred care in medical imaging and the impact of patient partnering. In 2022, she was awarded the R. Paul Kirsten Community Educator award from UBC Health for her more than a decade of service with UBC’s Interprofessional Health Mentors Program.
Mandy Young, Community Engagement Coordinator, PCPE
Mandy Young is a parent of a medically and behaviourally complex child and has six years of experience working in the non-profit peer support sector. Mandy has been a valued partner of Patient and Community Partnership for Education (PCPE) for over 10 years, volunteering as a Health Mentor and workshop facilitator for health care students. She is also a member of the UBC Health Patient & Community Advisory Committee and a recipient of the R. Paul Kerston Community Educator Award for expanding student learning beyond traditional boundaries and making a difference to student learning at UBC. Mandy brings her passion, dedication and advocacy experience to her role as community engagement coordinator.
Mandy builds community relationships and develops processes for the recruitment, orientation, and support of patient and community members engaged in UBC Health activities, especially in the core area of collaborative health education. Her work advances UBC Health’s mandate to graduate learners who understand the diverse perspectives and experiences of patients and communities.
Mandy holds facilitator certificates in ‘Planning an Alternative Tomorrow with Hope (PATH)’, a person-centered planning tool, and ‘Sibshop’, support for siblings of kids with disabilities. Mandy also has a certificate in Family Engagement in Research from McGill University.
Pooja Kadakia is a graduate of the Southern Medical Program with UBC in Kelowna. She originally joined the Health Mentors Program in her first year of medical school to deepen her knowledge of patient experiences and apply those lessons to her medical journey. After being paired with Lelania Lloyd, she was inspired to continue this program as a fourth year medical student in a full-circle moment. Now a first year Core Internal Medicine Resident Physician with the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, her knowledge from the HMP enhances her patient care and helps her be a better doctor.