Declaration of Commitment to Cultural Humility and Safety
In June 2019, Doctors of BC pledged its commitment to making our health system more culturally safe and effective for First Nations and Aboriginal peoples. Following these footsteps, the qathet Division of Family Practice (the “qDoFP”) is pledging its own Declaration of Commitment based on the principles of cultural safety and humility, and includes promoting these principles to the members we support.
The Declaration has three main pillars:
- Creating a climate for change
- Engaging and enabling stakeholders
- Implementing and sustaining change
Board of Directors and Tla’amin Nation
In February 2021, the qDoFP Board invited Tla’amin Nation elected representatives to its Board meeting. The meeting was an opportunity to convey our openness to learning, repairing, and healing from injustices of the past and to declare our commitment to better health outcomes for Indigenous people.
Progress
We are committed to sharing our annual progress, achievements, and learnings with our Members and community through our website and annual report.
About the Principles
Cultural Safety is an outcome based on respectful engagement that recognizes and strives to address power imbalances inherent in the health care system. It results in an environment free of racism and discrimination, where people feel safe when receiving health care.
Cultural Humility is a process of self-reflection to understand personal and systemic biases, and to develop and maintain respectful processes and relationships based on mutual trust. Cultural humility involves humbly acknowledging oneself as a lifelong learner when it comes to understanding another’s experience.
In February 2021, the PRDoFP Board of Directors and Executive Director endorsed the Declaration to demonstrate their commitment to advancing cultural humility and safety within health services in our community.
This Declaration of Commitment is based on the following guiding principles:
- Cultural Humility builds mutual trust and respect and enables cultural safety
- Cultural Safety is defined by each individual client’s health service experience
- Cultural Safety must be understood, embraced and practiced at all levels of the health care system, including governance, health organizations and within individual professional practice
All stakeholders, including First Nations and Aboriginal individuals, members and community partners must be involved in co-development of action strategies and in the decision-making process with a commitment to reciprocal accountability.
Three Pillars
1. Create a Climate for Change
- Articulating the pressing need to ensure cultural safety within members and partners
- Opening an honest and convincing dialogue with all stakeholders to show that change is necessary
- Forming a coalition of influential leaders and role models who are committed to the priority of embedding cultural humility and safety in our community
- Supporting the development of actions and implement through available resources
2. Engage and Enable Stakeholders
- Communicating the vision of culturally safe health systems for First Nations and Aboriginal people in our community and the absolute need for commitment and understanding
- Openly and honestly addressing concerns and leading by example
- Identifying and removing barriers to progress
- Tracking, evaluating and visibly celebrating accomplishments
3. Implement and Sustaining Change
- Empowering members to innovate, develop cultural humility and foster a culture of cultural safety
- Leading and enabling successive waves of actions until cultural humility and safety are embedded within our membership and our organization