Episode 8

About the Episode

In this episode, we speak with Rebecca Hargreaves and Sandra Fox about community-engaged research, cultural humility, and social work practice in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. Rebecca recently completed her Master of Social Work at the University of British Columbia, where her thesis explored cultural humility and social work practice among Downtown Eastside primary healthcare teams. Sandra is from the Musqueam Indian Band and works with the Indigenous Health Research Unit at the Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute, supporting researchers who engage with Indigenous communities in health research.

Together, they reflect on the relationships, mentorship, and community-engaged process that shaped the research. They discuss how uncomfortable reflexivity became a guiding practice, how Sandra’s role as an advisory group member helped foster a more relational and accountable approach, and how creating space for dialogue strengthened both the research process and the people involved. The conversation also explores social work’s role within systems that have caused harm and the importance of engaging in cultural humility as an ongoing ethical practice.

Timestamps
01:42 – Getting to Know: Rebecca Hargreaves
03:43 – Getting to Know: Sandra Fox
04:23 – Building Relationships through an Advisory Group
07:23 – Community-Based Research and Knowledge Exchange in Social Work
11:33 – Researching Cultural Humility in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside
17:40 – Cultural Safety, Cultural Humility, and Cultural Competence
25:46 – Social Work’s Role within Systems That Cause Harm
33:00 – How Uncomfortable Reflexivity Guided the Research
40:20 – How the Research Process Changed the Researcher
45:45 – Cultural Humility as an Ongoing Ethical Practice

Mentioned in this Episode
Rebecca’s Thesis
Research 101: A Manifesto for Ethical Research in the Downtown Eastside
Cultural Safety and Humility: FNHA Policy Statement
In Plain Sight: Addressing Indigenous-Specific Racism and Discrimination in B.C. Health Care
Survival, Strength, Sisterhood: DTES Documentary
2011 Insite Supreme Court Ruling in Canada
The History of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside

References
Cultural Humility and Cultural Safety
Lekas, H. M., Pahl, K., & Lewis, C. F. (2020). Rethinking cultural competence: Shifting to cultural humility. Health Services Insights, 13, 1–4. https://doi.org/10.1177/1178632920970580
McGovern, J., Brown, D., & Gasparro, V. (2016). Lessons learned from an LGBTQ senior center: A Bronx tale. Journal of Gerontological Social Work, 59(7–8), 496–511. https://doi.org/10.1080/01634372.2016.1255692
Mtuy, T. B., Mepukori, J., Seely, J., Burton, M. J., & Lees, S. (2022). The role of cultural safety and ethical space within postcolonial healthcare for Maasai in Tanzania. BMJ Global Health, 9, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2022-009907
Papps, E., & Ramsden, I. (1996). Cultural safety in nursing: The New Zealand experience. International Journal for Quality in Health Care, 8(5), 491–497. https://doi.org/10.1093/intqhc/8.5.491
Pilarinos, A., Field, S., Vasarhelyi, K., Hall, D., Fox, Elder D., Price, Elder R., Bonshor, L., & Bingham, B. (2023). A qualitative exploration of Indigenous patients’ experiences of racism and perspectives on improving cultural safety within health care. CMAJ Open, 11(3), E404–E410. https://www.cmajopen.ca/content/cmajo/11/3/E404.full.pdf
Rambaldini-Gooding, D., Olcoń, K., Molloy, L., Pitts, L., Lema, S., Baghdadi, E., Williams, J., & Degeling, C. (2024). Cultural humility in action: Learning from refugee and migrant women and healthcare providers to improve maternal health services in Australia. Health Expectations, 27, e70106. https://doi.org/10.1111/hex.70106

Uncomfortable Reflexivity
Morley, C. (2015). Critical reflexivity and social work practice. In J. D. Wright (Ed.), International encyclopedia of the social and behavioral sciences (2nd ed., pp. 281–286). Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-08-097086-8.28021-5
Yan, C. T., Orlandimeje, R., Drucker, R., & Lang, A. J. (2022). Unsettling reflexivity and critical race pedagogy in social work education: Narratives from social work students. Social Work Education, 41(8), 1669–1692. https://doi.org/10.1080/02615479.2021.1924665

Our Guests

Rebecca Hargreaves is an Australian/Canadian settler citizen. She recently completed her MSW studies at UBC. She has experience working in health care settings in British Columbia in Canada, and Queensland and Tasmania in Australia. Rebecca has interests in health care ethics, cultural safety and humility, identity and inequity, and attachment. 

Sandra Fox (she/her) is from the Musqueam Indian Band and is of mixed Musqueam and British ancestry. She lives as an uninvited guest with her two children in Syilx territory and has had the privilege of working in and with Indigenous communities for over 20 years in diverse capacities and fields including education, child welfare, and post-secondary education. She is part of the Indigenous Health Research Unit at the Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute, offering guidance to internal and external partners on designing more culturally safe Indigenous partnered and led research in alignment with Indigenous communities needs and ethics. She is developing research-specific training and tools for non-Indigenous health researchers, and also engages directly with Indigenous communities to determine their health priorities and support research projects to address them. Her work is guided by Indigenous communities and her own Musqueam values. Sandra is in her first year of the UBC Okanagan Indigenous Knowledges doctoral program.