TOPHC 2021 Fall Workshops
The TOPHC Fall 2021 Workshops were held on October 5 with overwhelmingly positive feedback from attendees on the format, content and delivery. We want to thank everyone who participated in the workshops and took the time to share their feedback with us. We’d also like to thank our speakers, Rafa Khan, Mallika Patil and Marsha Vanderford; our moderators, Andrea Bodkin, Karl Kabasele and Brian Schwartz; as well as the TOPHC team members who worked so hard to make these virtual workshops a success.
The workshops served as a bridge to TOPHC 2022 and topics were chosen based on input from our stakeholders who wanted hands-on sessions that would provide them with relevant knowledge they could easily apply to their day-to-day work. Here are some highlights:
Indigenous Cultural Safety – Rafa Khan and Mallika Patil
What is cultural safety? Recent revelations and the long history of colonialism and racism in Canada has profoundly affected the lives of Indigenous populations. In their workshop, Rafa Khan and Mallika Patil, facilitators from the newly-established Indigenous Primary Health Care Council (IPHCC), discussed inherent power imbalances within our health care structures. They explained how this kind of inequity exacerbates generational trauma and leads to poor health outcomes for Indigenous people.
Workshop attendees learned practical approaches to improve health interactions with Indigenous people and had the opportunity to reflect on, and discuss factors that contribute to culturally unsafe health care.
The facilitators discussed the need for public health agencies to build relationships with indigenous communities in a way that is focused on more than simple consultation. Rafa noted that, “It’s not enough just to invite someone to the table.” Instead, it’s important to ask them how they want to participate and what you can do to engage respectfully with the community.
Mallika spoke about the importance of fostering a positive connection and making it clear that, “You’re not just trying to gain wisdom from elders or knowledge keepers without reciprocating.” She suggested that a commitment not just to listen, but to take action based on what you are hearing is a way to signal that a health care organization is serious about creating culturally safe spaces for indigenous communities.
Rafa and Mallika acknowledged that learning about and putting strategies in place for indigenous cultural safety is a daunting task. They recommend recognizing our own biases and approaching relationships with indigenous communities from a place of humility and respect as a good starting point.
Risk Communications – Dr. Marsha L. Vanderford
Using recent examples from Ontario’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and research on effective community engagement, Dr. Vanderford’s presentation focused on the importance of establishing trust between public health agencies and the communities they serve. Prior to the workshop, attendees had identified managing uncertainty, influencing and sustaining behaviour change, and countering vaccine hesitancy as some of the key public health communication challenges they’re facing.
“The good news about managing uncertainty,” Dr. Vanderford said, “is that the research has built a consensus around a few tactics for addressing it.” These tactics include reinforcing trust between health authorities and the public by explicitly acknowledging that uncertainty exists. Dr. Vanderford suggested that it’s important to set up the expectation that, as our understanding of a situation evolves, the advice from public health will change. She used Public Health Ontario’s “What we know so far” series as a good example of how to manage uncertainty by acknowledging its existence.
Dr. Vanderford noted that there are some studies that indicate this kind of increased transparency can have the effect of undermining public trust in experts. To counter this, health authorities and government leaders can employ tactics like identifying with the concerns of the audience (e.g., “Like you, I’m worried about sending my kids back to school.”), publicly correcting mistakes, and explaining how decisions were reached instead of simply announcing a change in direction.
While recognizing that COVID-19 has taught us some hard lessons in uncertainty management, Dr. Vanderford believes that, “People don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care.”
Looking Ahead
In our post-workshop survey, attendees said they achieved their desired learning objectives, would recommend these sessions to their colleagues and are interested in more virtual learning opportunities. The good news is that there is more to come! We’re getting ready to solicit abstracts for presentations at our first all-virtual TOPHC conference scheduled for spring 2022. Follow us @TOPHCtweets for details on #TOPHC2022.
