Okanagan symposium tackles cultural safety in health care

KELOWNA – It may not be a household phrase, but the topic of “cultural safety” drew over 200 people to UBC Okanagan today for the second (annual?) Okanagan Cultural Safety Symposium. The one day event gave health care workers, Aboriginal people and others a chance to talk about cultural safety and how it impacts the way aboriginal people interact with the health care system.

“History has shown that our engagement in health care services is really low and the experiences that we have had can be negative, so cultural safety is about working together to identify practices that are safe for everyone to access health care services,” says Jennifer Houde, child and family and health services manager for the Okanagan Nation Alliance.

UBC Okanagan researchers were also on hand to talk about their studies.

“What that first study showed very persuasively is that Aboriginal people do not have positive experiences with health and social service delivery organizations especially and particularly those that are run by non-Aboriginal organizations,” says Mike Evans, a UBCO professor.

Evans added that the research shows the situation is turned around when an effort is made.

Houde is quick to point out that a lot has already been done locally to tackle the issue of cultural safety.

“However, we still have experiences in health care that are based within racism,” she says. “What we hope comes out of this is a real focused approach to cultural safety.”

Medical health officer, Dr. Rob Parker, didn’t seem surprised to hear about Aboriginal people having negative experiences with the health care sector.

The Interior Health Authority’s board of directors endorsed an Aboriginal Health and Wellness Strategy this week. There are other initiatives underway, including patient navigators that Interior Health says “support Aboriginal patients, caregivers and their families while in the health-care system.”