Québec's cultural awareness training makes flawed assumptions that do not prioritize the safety of Indigenous people
However, since the training program was launched, Indigenous leaders and health professionals have said it fails to improve cultural safety and poses safety risks to Indigenous Peoples.
- However, since the training program was launched, Indigenous leaders and health professionals have said it fails to improve cultural safety and poses safety risks to Indigenous Peoples.
- Legislating individuals and systems to shift behaviours and attitudes is useless without well-developed cultural safety programs developed and delivered by Indigenous Peoples.
Cultural safety
- In April, we organized a round table on cultural safety alongside Indigenous scholars, patient partners and other community members in Montréal.
- The educational strategies that underlie the awareness training are insufficient to countering racism and fostering cultural safety.
- Cultural safety promotes an approach to foster change that moves away from simply learning about a culture.
- Scholars propose a conception of cultural safety as a systemic approach to health-care transformation, one that goes beyond individual training but engages organizations and society as a whole towards the principles of cultural safety, equity, social justice and decolonization.
- As such, comprehensive Indigenous cultural safety training programs should explicitly integrate notions of power, privilege, colonialism and racism.
- However, cultural safety privileges the autonomy and self-determination of Indigenous Peoples in relation to their health services, and as such, promotes their empowerment.
- Cultural safety is aligned with principles that promote empowerment and rely on values such as respect, equity and reciprocity.