A partnership rooted in health equity
Ottawa Inner City Health (OICH) was selected as the inaugural recipient of the Faculty of Medicine Community Partnership Award in recognition of its long and well-established partnership with the Faculty, as well as its leadership in providing equitable, harm reduction and evidence-informed care.
Since 2001, OICH has developed innovative services for people experiencing homelessness and complex health challenges. Its approach recognizes that health cannot be separated from the circumstances in which people live. Housing, food security, mental health, substance use and other social conditions can all have a profound impact on a person’s well-being.
That perspective is at the heart of the organization’s work, and an important part of what makes its partnership with the Faculty so meaningful.
Learning from and with community
Several clinical departments within the Faculty, including Family Medicine, Ophthalmology, Otolaryngology and Psychiatry, work with the OICH team to provide collaborative care to clients at OICH, often involving medical students, residents and other learners.
Learners gain valuable experience as they see first-hand how care is delivered in community settings. They learn how harm reduction, interdisciplinary care and the social determinants of health shape clinical practice. These perspectives that can shape how they care for patients throughout their careers.
“This kind of reciprocal, mutually transformative partnership is fundamental to how we prepare future health professionals to respond to the most important needs in our society.”
Dr. Claire Kendall
— Associate Dean, Social Accountability at the Faculty of Medicine
For Dr. Claire Kendall, Associate Dean, Social Accountability at the Faculty of Medicine, that community connection is an essential part of medical education.
“Our partnership with Ottawa Inner City Health brings an important community perspective to the education and research practices of our learners. Through this collaboration, they have the opportunity to learn from and with community, while deepening their understanding of complex health and social needs, and the people they will ultimately serve,” said Dr. Kendall. “This kind of reciprocal, mutually transformative partnership is fundamental to how we prepare future health professionals to respond to the most important needs in our society.”
Equity-focused experiential learning
The partnership extends beyond clinical education. OICH and faculty members also collaborate on research, involving learners and researchers in efforts to advance innovative approaches to improving the health and well-being of underserved communities.
For Rob Boyd, CEO of Ottawa Inner City Health, the partnership reflects a shared commitment to education, research and health equity.
“Ottawa Inner City Health is deeply honoured to receive this year's Community Partnership Award. Together, we provide learners with valuable opportunities to gain practical experience and develop the skills required to deliver compassionate, evidence-informed care. We have also collaborated on research that advances innovative approaches to improving the health and well-being of our community's most vulnerable members.”
“More than ever, we need strong advocates, robust research, and effective partnerships to confront stigma and reduce health inequities.”
Rob Boyd
— CEO of Ottawa Inner City Health
That work is particularly important at a time when evidence-based care for people experiencing homelessness and people who are often excluded from health-care systems faces growing challenges.
“More than ever, we need strong advocates, robust research, and effective partnerships to confront stigma and reduce health inequities,” Boyd says.
A shared commitment to health equity
The Community Partnership Award recognizes more than a successful collaboration. It celebrates what becomes possible when academic medicine and community expertise come together around a shared purpose.
For the Faculty of Medicine, the partnership with OICH helps learners understand social circumstances, barriers and inequities shape health. For OICH, the relationship brings together clinical expertise, education and research in support of people who have too often been left behind.
Together, the Faculty and OICH are helping prepare future health professionals to provide compassionate, evidence-informed care, while contributing to a more inclusive, responsive and equitable health-care system.
Give today and help advance health equity
You can help the Faculty of Medicine build a more equitable health care system.
Your gift to the Social Accountability MD Program Bursary helps support future physicians as they learn to address health inequities and the needs of underserved communities.