Elizabeth Stacy

Social accountability in action: University-community collaboration in the development of an interprofessional Aboriginal health elective

A survey of the health professional curriculum at the University of British Columbia revealed a need for improvements in education relating to Aboriginal health. At the same time, interprofessional education has been increasingly viewed as an essential aspect of sustainable health care reform. Interprofessional approaches to education and community practice have the potential to contribute to improvements in access to care, as well as health professional recruitment in underserved communities. While the benefits of interprofessional approaches have been identified, there are few published examples of the application of interprofessional learning and care in Aboriginal communities. This article describes the co-development by university and community partners of an accredited interprofessional, practice-based Aboriginal health course. Seed funding for this course was originally granted in November 2004 for a demonstration project led by the UBC Faculty of Medicine from a national Primary Health Care Renewal initiative focused on Social Accountability, namely “Issues of Quality and Continuing Professional Development: Maintenance of Competence” (referred to as CPDiQ project). This article presents findings from the development and implementation of this innovative course, run as a pilot during the summer of 2006 in two Aboriginal communities in British Columbia, Canada. Recommendations for integrating Aboriginal perspectives and foregrounding principles of social accountability in interprofessional health curricula are highlighted. In addition, successes and challenges are described related to garnering administrative and curricular support among the various health disciplines, interprofessional scheduling, and fostering cross-discipline understanding and communication.

Community-Based Research in Action: Tales from the Ktunaxa Community Learning Centres Project

Background: Rural communities, particularly Aboriginal communities, often have limited access to health information, a situation that can have significant negative consequences. To address the lack of culturally and geographically relevant health information, a community-university partnership was formed to develop, implement, and evaluate Aboriginal Community Learning Centres (CLCs).Objectives: The objective of this paper is to evaluate the community-based research process used in the development of the CLCs. It focuses on the process of building relationships among partners and the CLC’s value and sustainability.Methods: Semistructured interviews were conducted with key stakeholders, including principal investigators, community research leads, and supervisors. The interview transcripts were analyzed using an open-coding process to identify themes.Results: Key challenges included enacting shared project governance, negotiating different working styles, and hiring practices based on commitment to project objectives rather than skill set. Technological access provided by the CLCs increased capacity for learning and collective community initiatives, as well as building community leads’ skills, knowledge, and self-efficacy. An important lesson was to meet all partners “where they are” in building trusting relationships and adapting research methods to fit the project’s context and strengths.Conclusions: Successful results were dependent upon persistence and patience in working through differences, and breaking the project into achievable goals, which collectively contributed to trust and capacity building. The process of building these partnerships resulted in increased capacity of communities to facilitate learning and change initiatives, and the capacity of the university to engage in successful research partnerships with Aboriginal communities in the future.

Perceptions of Electronic Personal Health Records and the Connection to Self-Care: Considerations for Design and Implementation Within a Multicultural Population

Health consumers who are motivated and engaged in self-care are more effective users of health-care resources and are more likely to experience better health outcomes. For this to occur, health consumers require a mechanism to track their health record in order to empower them as effective and active participants in managing their health. To understand the impact of a personal health record (PHR) on one’s capacity to enable effective self-care, this study invited participants of a public health education forum to share their perspectives on PHRs, their personal health status, and their ability to make informed choices about their self-care. Uniquely, the public health education forum was held in Chinese (both Mandarin and Cantonese) and adapted to be culturally relevant for Chinese families living in British Columbia (BC). Forums were part of a larger educational campaign and focused on culturally relevant chronic disease management, providing participants with general education on the prevention and management of cardiovascular disease. This study used mixed methods, incorporating data collection by means of surveys, focus groups, and interviews. Surveys were distributed to participants upon arrival at a public health education forum hosted by the University of British Columbia’s (UBC) Faculty of Medicine eHealth Strategy Office. While respondents recognized the benefits of tracking their own health record, many had not yet made use of PHRs, and for those who did track their health, most used paper records. Analysis of data revealed that most of the participants were ready to learn how to set up their own electronic personal health record (ePHR), recognized the potential advantages and challenges associated with using an ePHR, and wanted to proceed with using an ePHR toward helping them in their own health management

Ktunaxa Community Learning Centres (KCLC): A Model of Community Engagement in Health, Education, and Training

According to the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, there are disproportionately high rates of social and community ill health among First Nations in comparison to the Canadian population in general. Health encompasses not only health care delivery, but also education, community and family networks, traditional knowledge exchange, and linguistic vitality and identity. The use of information communication technologies in health service delivery, also known as e-health, has the potential to improve access to health information in underserved communities and potentially affect disparities in community health. An important area requiring further exploration is community engagement in the design of health resources and content suitable for unique community contexts. In order to understand this process, the Ktunaxa Community Learning Centres (KCLC) project was developed to support the development and implementation of health education in three First Nations communities. The goal of KCLC was to explore how technology could be used to promote health in rural First Nations communities. This chapter describes the development, implementation and impact of this community learning centers initiative and offers recommendations, insights and key messages based on the project.