Reflecting on the end of MHST631

Another semester end has snuck up on me! This semester brought a lot of personal challenges, and I am grateful to have had the space to learn here. It was interesting how closely aligned the topics were in this course with learnings in my career. Being able to attend the First Nations Health Managers Conference in the middle of the semester was such an incredible opportunity to listen and learn from lived experiences and apply what I had heard to assignments and reflections. When I came into this course, I thought I had a clear picture of what “good” engagement looked like but throughout the last 13 weeks I have sat with the uncomfortable truth that intention doesn’t always align with impact. Concepts such as cultural safety and equity were not new to me, but took on a different weight when connected to my own biases and assumptions.

I have had the opportunity to reflect on how easily programs with the best of intentions can reproduce harm when they fail to respect the lived experiences of the communities that they are engaging with. I have found myself thinking about my work in Indigenous health and recognizing the tension between wanting to help but needing to really listen first.

This course has pushed me to recognize how my social position influences the way that I communicate and make decisions in my life. I have become more aware of the comfort biases that I have and how they will impact interactions even when I am trying my best to be objective. I think it’s also easy to make this issue about yourself and become self-focused on your perspectives, but when this happens it’s so crucial to shift back to the situation at hand and put yourself into the perspective and lived experiences of those you are trying to work with, recognizing that this isn’t about you. I have started to see this as part of the ongoing work that I am doing to become a more reflective and respectful healthcare worker.

I believe that I am leaving this course with a much deeper commitment to humility, collaboration, and slowing down enough to understand the situation better before acting. As an action, solution-oriented person this is a really important step for me. Health promotion is about honouring all voices and making space to ensure that they are heard and respected and that decisions are made with everyone at the table.