The Faculty of Medicine is mobilizing for this event by offering 4 symposia exploring health and the French-speaking world:
Democratizing health: Sustainable health in the French-speaking world - Thursday, May 16, 2024
The concept of sustainable health focuses on prevention and promotion and takes shape in a global and interconnected approach to health and well-being. Sustainable health refers to the set of social, economic, environmental, and individual factors that influence the state of health of a person and a population. Francophones—and to a greater extent those living in minority situations across the country—face particular challenges related to their own health determinants, not to mention the influence that their minority status can have. It is against this backdrop that this theme day offers a stimulating space where researchers, decision-making practitioners and citizens can come together to discuss emerging challenges and share ideas, experiences, and visions.
The health of French-speaking Black minorities - Wednesday, May 15
Black immigrants to Canada face challenges in accessing culturally appropriate health care. This is all the more glaring in a linguistic minority situation, where the Black immigrant is a triple minority: 1) immigrant, 2) Black and 3) Francophone. This intersectionality of social determinants has a direct impact on access to adequate, culturally adapted healthcare, and therefore ultimately on their health status. The symposium will shed light on specific aspects found in perinatal care and mental health and address some possible solutions for improving the cultural competence of healthcare professionals.
Language as a determinant of health: Linguistic discordance in health and health care for linguistic minorities in Canada - Thursday, May 16 (AM only)
As migration continues to shape the world at an unprecedented rate, more people will face language barriers to accessing healthcare services because they live in a minority language situation. This is particularly true in Canada. The identification of language as a determinant of health in Canada has been hampered by the absence of linguistic information in many health services databases, by small study samples, and by sub-optimal use of existing data. With a focus on francophones living in minority language contexts across the country, this symposium brings together experts in the field to better understand and address linguistic discordance in care as a determinant of health.
Thinking about the projected, concrete and situated uses of digital health technologies: from "telecare" to "augmented care" - Wednesday May 15 to Thursday May 16
Digital transformations in healthcare are not new, and countless technologies are available today, such as mobile applications dedicated to health or well-being, connected objects to support patients suffering from chronic diseases, robots to operate or cognitively stimulate people with neurodegenerative diseases, wearable or implantable devices to diagnose neurological, cardiac or other disorders. The general aim of this symposium is to bring together the French-speaking scientific community around the issue of projected and concrete uses of digital health technologies, by inviting researchers to analyze the socially situated, embodied and equipped character of digital health technology uses, and to "make visible" social practices, imagined or real "usage trajectories" or "domestication" processes.
Activities offered in French only.