Climate Change and Health Equity
Earth Day is an occasion for healthcare professionals and institutions to reflect on the link between the condition of our planet and its effects on our health. Alarmingly, a March, 2023 report from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) describes the situation as “urgent” due to the anticipated harms caused by climate change, many of which are already being realized.
What is Climate Change?
According Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC), Climate change refers to long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns, mainly caused by human activities, especially the burning of fossil fuels. The full impact of these changes is not entirely known, but emergent observations indicate dire consequences for health that will continue to grow in severity unless substantial action is taken to reduce fossil fuel emissions and develop a climate resilient society.
This Earth Day, the UBC Office of Respectful Environments, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (REDI) calls specific attention to climate justice, which seeks to address the inequities associated with the impacts, causes, and solutions to climate change. We remind Faculty of Medicine staff, faculty, and students that while some progress is being made, the healthcare industry plays a complex role in the quest for climate justice, contributing both challenges to its success and progress to its pursuit.
At the heart of climate justice is the tragic fact that members of marginalized communities-which include Indigenous Peoples, Black Peoples, and Peoples of Color (IBPOC)-are more acutely impacted by the negative effects of climate change than the general population.
Healthcare Facing the Impacts of Climate Change
The healthcare industry fails to adequately serve members of marginalized communities, who are more vulnerable to the negative health impacts of climate change. When climate change causes a decline in air quality, an increase in extreme weather events, rising temperatures, and higher incidences of vector-borne diseases (such as Lyme disease, malaria, Zika, West Nile Virus), marginalized communities are often the most vulnerable to the effects and least likely to receive the care they need. Therefore, greater action must be taken to address inequities in care and ensure that medical care is provided to all people.
According to Health Canada, inequities are due in part because of disparities in society, such as those related to racism, poverty, disability, colonialism, homelessness, sex and gender, and access to health care. As a result, members of marginalized communities are more like to experience the following health detriments from climate change:
- shorter lifespans
- higher rates of chronic diseases
- greater food and water insecurity in many communities
Locally, progress is being made to provide more care where it is most needed. As part of its Climate Emergency Plan UBC states that,
“in order to undo the systems of oppression that enable exploitation, UBC is working to acknowledge and reckon with its own role in contributing to the climate crisis, while leveraging its intellectual and moral authority as well as its social and financial procurement power to advance climate justice in other organizations and advocate for broader social change beyond its institutional boundaries.”
However, as the effects of climate change become more severe… more action will be needed.
Healthcare as a Cause of Climate Change
Climate justice requires that healthcare look within itself to acknowledge-and address-the role it plays in creating climate change. The UBC Faculty of Medicine Planetary Healthcare Lab—the first of its kind in Canada— examines the environmental effects of healthcare delivery and services in B.C., and works to generate solutions to chart a path forward to net zero emissions.
According to Dr. Andrea MacNeill, a surgical oncologist in Vancouver and global leader in healthcare sustainability,
“In Canada, the healthcare industry is responsible for more than four and a half percent of greenhouse gas emissions—equivalent to the aviation industry. While four and half per cent of greenhouse gas emissions may not sound like much, if we were to decarbonize healthcare, it would actually be equivalent to eliminating air travel.”
The effects of the healthcare industry’s contributions to greenhouse gas emissions have a disproportionately negative impact on marginalized communities.
One group working to address these contributions in healthcare is the Planetary Health Alliance, a growing consortium of over 350 universities, non-governmental organizations, research institutes, and government entities from 60+ countries around the world committed to understanding and addressing the impacts of global environmental change on human health and wellbeing. Their pledge for planetary health to unite health professionals in the Anthropocene calls upon healthcare professionals and institutions to recommit themselves to primum non nocere (first do no harm), recognizing that planetary health is a key foundation for ensuring human health.
Healthcare’s Conscious Pursuit of Solutions to Climate Change
Climate justice recognizes that members of marginalized communities are also more likely to be left out of and suffer from the negative downsides of solutions to address climate change. For example, in healthcare, building new, modern hospitals may be a laudable and necessary action for delivering better patient care to underserved communities, but the structural inequities in society mean that marginalized communities are more likely to be displaced or otherwise hurt by the construction process.
For this reason, Earth Day is an occasion to emphasize the importance of including and prioritizing the voices of marginalized communities as healthcare leaders seek climate change solutions that work for everyone. The March, 2023 IPCC report indicates,
“To be effective, these choices need to be rooted in our diverse values, worldviews and knowledges, including scientific knowledge, Indigenous Knowledge and local knowledge. This approach will facilitate climate resilient development and allow locally appropriate, socially acceptable solutions.”
One group working to amplify the voices of Indigenous Peoples for climate justice is Indigenous Climate Action (ICA), an Indigenous-led organization guided by a diverse group of Indigenous knowledge keepers, water protectors and land defenders from communities and regions across Canada.
Until the voices of marginalized communities are included and respected in conversations about the solutions to climate change in healthcare, climate injustice will persist.
IBPOC Voices: A Conversation with Jorden Hendry
Thank you for joining us on Monday, April 17th, 2023 from 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm (PST), for “IBPOC Voices: A Conversation with Jorden Hendry.” Jorden Hendry is Tsimshian/settler and a member of the Lax Kw’alaams band with nine years of experience contributing to reconciliation and anti-racism in the health and educational system. As a PhD student at the University of British Columbia, Jorden studies Indigenous Public Health and the systems that drive health disparities.
This virtual event is part of the IBPOC Voices, a new monthly series led by Dr. Neila Miled the anti-racism Advisor.
IBPOC Voices is an opportunity to meet and have a conversation with guests who identify as Indigenous, Black and people of color. This series centers IBPOC experiences and knowledge, and highlights how they navigate the different challenges and how they engage with equity, diversity and inclusion. It is also a space where guests talk about their vision of an equitable and just environment. This series is an opportunity to open spaces where we know each other more and create a sense of community because “We are fully dependent on each other for the possibility of being understood and without this understanding we are not intelligible, we do not make sense, we are not solid, visible, integrated; we are lacking. So, travelling to each other’s “worlds” would enable us to be through loving each other” (Maria Lugones)
Jorden Hendry (she/her) is Tsimshian/settler and a member of the Lax Kw’alaams band with nine years of experience contributing to reconciliation and anti-racism in the health and educational system. As a PhD student at the University of British Columbia, Jorden studies Indigenous Public Health and the systems that drive health disparities. She intends to better understand the prevalence and factors associated with experiences of racism to inform policy and service provision. Jorden works at the Office of the Provincial Health Officer as a research assistant for the Unlearning and Undoing White Supremacy Project. Taking her learnings from her various lived and academic experiences, Jorden founded the SPPH Unlearning Club. She uses strong leadership to embed anti-racism and Indigenous ways of knowing into multiple levels of governance at UBC, doing so through serving on committees at the School of Population and Public Health and being a graduate student representative to the UBC Vancouver Senate.
Moderator
- Dr. Neila Miled – Anti-Racism Advisor
Topic: IBPOC Voices: A Conversation with Jorden Hendry
Date: Monday, April 17th, 2023
Time: 12:00 – 1:00 pm PST
What Will I Learn?
You will learn more about IBPOC experiences and knowledge, and how IBPOC navigate the different challenges and engage with equity, diversity and inclusion.
UBC 23 24 Indigenous Cultural Safety: Creating Excellence in the Arenas of Truth, Reconciliation and Academia
Thank you for joining us on Thursday, April 27th, 2023 from 12:00 pm – 1:30 pm (PST), for “UBC 23 24 Indigenous Cultural Safety: Creating Excellence in the Arenas of Truth, Reconciliation and Academia.” This Indigenous Speaker Series session brought together Dr. Nadine Caron, Dr. Gwendolyn Point and Courtney Smith to discuss the work of cultural safety, cultural humility, and the broader work in regards to the recommendations from In Plain Sight, Truth and Reconciliation, and the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act Action Plan. This important and timely dialogue shed light on the work being undertaken across the UBC Faculty of Medicine in an effort to reconcile and redress the relationship between Indigenous peoples and health care professionals and systems.
Join us virtually on Thursday, April 27th, 2023 from 12:00 pm – 1:30 pm (PST), for “UBC 23 24 Indigenous Cultural Safety: Creating Excellence in the Arenas of Truth, Reconciliation and Academia.” This virtual event is presented by the Indigenous Speakers Series.
Panelists bios
Dr. Nadine Caron,
MD, MPH, FRCSC – Professor, Dept. of Surgery, Faculty of Medicine (NMP), Co-Director of Centre for Excellence in Indigenous Health
Nadine Caron is the daughter of an Ojibwe mother and an Italian immigrant father. Her mother is from the Sagamok Anishinaabe First Nation on the north shore of Lake Huron, where she attended residential school and became a schoolteacher.
Dr. Caron was born and raised in Kamloops, BC, and completed her Bachelor of Science in Kinesiology at Simon Fraser University (1993) and her Medical Degree (1997) at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. During her surgical residency, Nadine completed her Masters of Public Health (2001) from Harvard University and after completion of residency training (2003), moved to San Francisco to complete her Postgraduate Fellowship Training in Endocrine Surgical Oncology at the University of California, San Francisco (2004). But her love for BC brought her home and since January 2005, Nadine has been working as a General and Endocrine Surgeon at the University Hospital of Northern BC. She is a Professor at UBC’s Northern Medical Program, as well as an Associate Faculty member at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Public Health, Adjunct Professor at University of Northern British Columbia, Associate Faculty at UBC’s School of Population and Public Health and BCCA Scientist, Genome Sciences Centre.
As the first female First Nations student to graduate from the University of British Columbia’s medical school, she won the Hamber Gold Medal as the top graduating student and was named one of Maclean’s “One Hundred Canadians to Watch.” Dr. Caron’s main research focus involves access to equal health status, health care services and the research that leads to these for our marginalized populations – including Aboriginal, northern and rural. She is currently a member of the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research Board of Directors, the Governing Council of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Regional Advisory Committee for the Terry Fox Research Institute (BC Node), the BCCA Surgical Oncology Network and member of the Northern Aboriginal Cancer Care Advisory Committee. As well, Nadine is the Co-Director of the UBC Centre for Excellence in Indigenous Health which aims to be a focal point for collaboration involving UBC students/faculty and community in partnerships to optimize health science curriculum, education, student supports and health research through an Indigenous lens. Nadine has also been a part of multiple presentations nationally and internationally on Indigenous health, cancer care in rural and northern populations, and addressing the inequities – both known and suspected – for Canada’s marginalized populations.
Dr. Gwendolyn Point, Stó:lõ Nation
Cultural Knowledge Keeper for The Centre for Excellence in Indigenous Health (CEIH)
Dr. Point currently serves as an Adjunct Professor and Cultural Knowledge Keeper for The Centre for Excellence in Indigenous Health (CEIH) Director, Dr. Nadine Caron who is the First Nations Health Authority (FNHA) Chair in Cancer and Wellness, which includes advising on matters related to Indigenous Cultural Safety (ICS) and the Centre’s ICS Program, ‘UBC 23 24’.
In addition to this, Dr. Point has also been appointed the Knowledge Keeper for the BC Assembly of First Nation Chiefs and served a term 2015-2018 as the Chancellor for the University of the Fraser Valley. She has a Doctor of Education from Simon Fraser University, a Master of Education from the University of Portland, a Post Baccalaureate from SFU, and a Bachelor of Education from the University of British Columbia. Numerous awards include, Paul Harris Fellow, Order of Chilliwack, BC Aboriginal Tourism Award, Seattle Art Museum: “The Recognition for work in First Nation Language & Culture”, The University of the Fraser Valley: “The Betty Urqhart Community Service Award”, Chilliwack School District set up 2 bursaries in her name.
Courtney Smith,
UBC 23 24 Curriculum Manager
Courtney Smith is a second generation Canadian settler of Scottish highlander and German ancestry. She was raised on the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia on shíshálh swiya* and has strong ties to the shíshálh community, whom she worked doing rights and title work for a number of years. Courtney has an educational background in First Nations and Indigenous Studies with a strong focus in Education and is currently pursuing a Masters of Arts in Interdisciplinary studies from UBC researching connections between Indigenous Cultural Safety & Social and Emotional Learning education.
As the Curriculum Manager for UBC 23 24, Courtney is responsible for the maintenance, sustainability and expansion of the curriculum in the effort to support students, faculty and staff in teaching, learning and applyingIndigenous Cultural Safetyprinciples in health care and health care related settings. As a non-Indigenous settler, Courtney is committed to improving relations between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples in Canada that are based on respect, reciprocity and healing.
*swiya: the she shashishalhem (shíshálh language) word for ‘world’. The word ‘territory’ does not exist in she shashishalhem, thus elders, knowledge keepers and the Nation request that the word ‘swiya’ is used instead.
Moderator
Derek K Thompson – Thlaapkiituup, Indigenous Advisor
Description
The UBC 23 24 Indigenous Cultural Safety Program has been forging the way forward in designing and delivering training for students and faculty since 2017. Approximately 4500 students have completed this important program, and with their combined efforts and determination there’s great promise that someday we’ll have figured out how to end racism and discrimination against Indigenous – First Nations, Inuit, Métis – peoples within academic and health care systems.
This panel brings together Dr. Nadine Caron and Courtney Smith to discuss the work of cultural safety, cultural humility, and the broader work in regards to the recommendations from In Plain Sight, Truth and Reconciliation, and the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act Action Plan. This important and timely dialogue will highlight the work being undertaken across the UBC Faculty of Medicine in an effort to reconcile and redress the relationship between Indigenous peoples and health care professionals and systems.
In November 2020, the report In Plain Sight: Addressing Indigenous-specific Racism and Discrimination in B.C. Health Care showed us what was already in plain sight as far as Indigenous peoples were concerned – that racism and discrimination against our people in BC Health Care organizations was happening on an epidemic scale.
Grand Chief Stuart Phillip, President of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs, stated in response to the report In Plain Sight that, “Racism against Indigenous peoples is a malignant disease that has been in the health care system in British Columbia since inception…[and] Racism is not just hurtful words or ideas – in health care, it leaves Indigenous peoples suffering without proper care. In the moment when you need health care, it is too much of a burden to put on the backs of First Nations peoples, having to deal with this racism. That is not compassionate, it is cruel and painful.”
Racism against Indigenous peoples is cruel and painful. Racism against First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples from health professionals, people who are charged with upholding organizational, professional, ethical, and legislative policies only serves to worsen this experience and move it from cruel to harmful and from painful to irreparable. Health care professionals in BC must aspire to great and greater ways to move this experience from cruel to compassionate, from painful to hopeful, and to challenge the status quo and work towards correcting the very systems in which they work. This is not an easy task but it is a task worthy of our best efforts.
Topic: UBC 23 24 Indigenous Cultural Safety: Creating Excellence in the Arenas of Truth, Reconciliation and Academia
Date: Thursday, April 27th, 2022
Time: 12:00 – 1:30 pm PST
What Will I Learn?
You will learn about the current work being undertaken by the UBC 23 24 Indigenous Cultural Safety Program.
Continue Learning
“The time to make things happen is now. The time to seek out our individual and shared power is now.”
Learn more about REDI’s Indigenous Initiatives here
Discover more about REDI’s Indigenous Initiatives Speakers Series here
Find REDI’s Indigenous-Specific Resources here
March 2023 Newsletter
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