In Canada, Indigenous people and people of colour are negatively impacted by systemic inequities in social inclusion, personal health, and access to and quality of health and social services. We also know that Indigenous people and people of colour have been over-represented in statistics on those who experience violence across Canada – for example, Indigenous women 15 years and older are 3.5 times more likely to experience violence than non-Indigenous women. This is an important and urgent health care issue.

Family physicians have a role to play in addressing the systemic racism that Indigenous people and people of colour face every day in our country. Family physicians cannot treat the immediate health concerns of their patients without understanding and addressing the underlying social and economic factors that give rise to poor health. Health care professionals must take steps to eliminate the systemic barriers that prevent Indigenous people and people of colour from accessing the same services and care that are available to most Canadians. Some of these barriers are our own biases, which we must acknowledge and root out.

The BCCFP is committed to promoting anti-racism and cultural safety and humility in the practice of family medicine. We provide resources on health equity and cultural safety and humility on our website. We urge our members to review these resources and consider how you can improve your practice. We must all be actively anti-racist.

Our efforts towards anti-racism are only just beginning and there is much to be done. We are committed to identifying further actions we can take in the immediate and long-term future.

Resources:

Visit our Cultural Safety and Humility section for more resources specific to Indigenous cultural safety and humility.

We continue to develop these resources. Please contact us with any suggested additions.