Posted
Closed
Commitment: Long-term
Connection method: Virtual
Open to Northern Region, Indigenous patient partners across the Northern region
Posted
Volunteer Opportunity
With an aim to improve health care and service provision for Indigenous patients, clients, residents and families Northern Health is evaluating its current care and complaints process and is looking for two patient partners to join the project team.
Lead Organization/Department
Northern Health Authority, Indigenous Health
Aim
Patient partners offer real-life perspectives and it is important that the experiences and journey of going through a care and complaints process at Northern Health is better understood. This will ultimately lead to improvements in the health care provided to Indigenous patients and their families.
Level of Engagement
This opportunity is at the level of collaborate on the spectrum of engagement. The promise to you is that the health care partner will work together with you to formulate solutions and incorporate your advice and recommendations into the decisions to the maximum extent possible.
Eligibility
Open to patient partners across the North who:
• Identify as Indigenous (Métis, First Nations, or Inuit)
• Have experience either directly or as a family member with the Northern Health Care and Complaints process within the past 3 years (please note patient partners must not have an active complaint with the Northern Health Patient Care Quality Office)
• Are comfortable sharing experiences in a group setting
• Are comfortable attending online meetings
• Patient, client, and/or family partners/advisors give a lot of themselves: time, energy, and the sharing of personal stories or experiences that may be difficult. It is important that this not be done at the expense of your own health/wellbeing. There is a potential risk that patient, client, and/or family partners may experience emotional distress through reflecting on and sharing what may have been a negative care experience. With this in mind, we ask that you only consider participating if you feel it would be safe and comfortable for you to do so.
As Northern Health is committed to connection and relationship building part of the selection process will involve meeting with short listed patient partners.
If you have a strong interest in this work but have not yet completed a PVN orientation and Patient Partner Commitments, are unsure if your experience is a good fit or feel another format of engagement would work better with your availability, please contact Cassy Mitchell.
Logistics
• Number of vacancies: 2
• Date and Time: Monthly meetings for 1-1.5 hours depending on the work required. There will also be 0.5-1 hour of pre/post work to review relevant agendas and documents and/or debrief with a support person. The date and time of meetings will be dependent on patient partner availability.
• Location: Online participation via MS Teams or Zoom
• Commitment: Up to 6 months
Reimbursement
No out of pocket expenses are anticipated for this engagement opportunity. However, if you meet the eligibility criteria, but have concerns about your ability to participate, please contact Cassy Mitchell cmitchell@bcpsqc.ca to see if support options are available. We are always seeking to better understand and reduce barriers to participation.
Recognition for time will be provided according to Northern Health’s organizational policies.
Background
Northern Health is committed to addressing systemic racism across our organization. We are undertaking this project in response to the In Plain Sight report’s Recommendation 5: “That the BC government, First Nations governing bodies and representative organizations, and Métis Nation BC jointly develop a strategy to improve the patient complaint process to address individual and systemic Indigenous-specific racism.” In working on the current complaints process and relying on peer experience, this process could potentially be triggering for participants. Being mindful of that, the meetings will be run according to trauma-informed practice with an emphasis on how to enhance resilience and reclamation of those who may interface with the complaints process.
Please refer to Northern Health’s web site for more information about our current complaint process through the Patient Care Quality Office (https://www.northernhealth.ca/contact/patient-care-quality-office)
You can also find more information about how Indigenous Health’s team has traditionally supported complaints by referring to the attached booklet: concerns-and-complaints-2019.pdf
