An Rx against racist behaviour in Alberta emergency departments – Folio

March 24, 2023

After years of studying systemic racism in hospital emergency care, a team of researchers and First Nations organizations will create ways to ensure all patients are treated equitably and with dignity.

For the last six years, First Nations organizations have supported a team of researchers including Bonnie Healy and Patrick McLane to study the quality of care for First Nations members in Alberta’s emergency departments. The results demonstrate systemic racism in emergency care.

Now, eight First Nations organizations are ready to launch the critical next phase of their work to create an anti-racism intervention that will ensure patients needing help will be treated equitably and with dignity. The Alberta First Nations Information Governance Centre, Blackfoot Confederacy Tribal Council, Stoney Nakoda Tsuut’ina Tribal Council, Bigstone Health Commission, Maskwacis Health Services, Paul First Nation Health Services, Yellowhead Tribal Council, and Kee Tas Kee Now Tribal Council are supporting the work.

The project, made possible by a $1.75-million grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, will create several partnerships between Alberta emergency departments and Indigenous organizations, says McLane, an adjunct associate professor in the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry and assistant scientific director of Alberta Health Services’ Emergency Strategic Clinical Network.

Read More: https://www.ualberta.ca/folio/2023/03/an-rx-for-racist-behaviour-in-alberta-emergency-departments.html