Making Healthcare Decisions: Aboriginal Experiences in Healthcare

Date: Wednesday, June 18, 2014

At our next Research Circle, researchers Dr. Anita Ho (UBC Applied Ethics), Kim Taylor (Providence Health) and Jenny Morgan (Aboriginal Mother Centre Society) will be presenting on a research project that explores how Aboriginal peoples and other diverse populations navigate health care systems. This is your opportunity to learn more about the project and give feedback to the researchers from your own perspective.

Goal of Presentation and Feedback Session

Our presenters wish to share their preliminary research findings on participants’ views of how their cultural values, background, and other social realities affect their decision-making preferences as well as their recommendations on supporting patients and family members through complex healthcare decision making. Some themes will include participants’ views regarding information provision around their diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment options, the time/relationship with healthcare providers, and the need for greater cultural awareness and incorporation or traditional practices into patients’ care plans. The presenters would like to engage in a dialogue with you regarding your thoughts and reflections on the project findings and any recommendations you may have on the direction and design of the research project going forward.

About the Supportive Decision Making for Diverse Populations Study

This study is particularly interested in hearing the experiences of patients and/or their family members from diverse economic, cultural, and linguistic backgrounds who made or are making important and difficult healthcare decisions. We have specifically targeted recruitment of Aboriginal, Punjabi, Chinese, and Persian patients and family members in the Lower Mainland, as these populations’ perspectives on the challenges and resources in healthcare decision-making have been underrepresented in the mainstream literature.

As a qualitative study, the goal is to translate lessons from the lived experiences of participants into informed practices and resources to help support patients and families faced with complex healthcare decisions. By listening to the experiences and recommendations that patients and family members of diverse backgrounds have regarding healthcare decisions making, we can integrate their views into our recommendations to health care providers, which in turn can help improve the health care these populations receive. More information…

Project Goals:

The study has three key objectives:

1. To understand patients’ and families’ healthcare decision-making process;
2. To identify patients’, families’, and healthcare providers’ views of individual and system barriers and strengths in promoting supportive decision making;
3. To develop a needs assessment tool and supportive decision making guidelines.

Project Funding Sources:

Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Institute of Aboriginal People’s Health

Time frame for the study:

This study began in April 1012 and the funding will continue until April 2015.

Resources and Links: 

Research Circle Presentation PDF

Presenters

	Anita Ho, Ph.D, Principal Investigator Associate Professor, Centre for Applied Ethics, UBC Director, Ethics Serivces, Providence Health Care
	Jenny Morgan, MSW, RSW, Research Assistant Member of the Gitxsan First Nation Executive Director, Aboriginal Mother Centre Society
	Kim Taylor, MA, Graduate Research Assistant Ph.D. Student, University of British Columbia; Clinical Ethicist, Vancouver Coastal Health