The Chief Medical Officer for the First Nations Health Authority is calling on healthcare practitioners to be mindful of intergenerational trauma when treating First Nation’s patients. Dr. Evan Adams describes trauma as a wound, and needs to be treated with care and compassion. For example traumatic experiences in residential schools can result in distrust of authoritative systems. Dr. Adams says it is important that healthcare practitioners treat patients with respect, regardless of cultural origin (cultural safety) and as a person with thoughts and beliefs (cultural humility) instead of just seeing a patient’s medical condition.
Source: Roshini Nair. “Health system should recognize intergenerational trauma, expert says.” January 4, 2017. CBC News. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/health-system-should-recognize-intergenerational-trauma-expert-says-1.3920778