The University of British Columbia (UBC) will launch Canada's first Aboriginal family practice residency program in July, when Drs. Evan Adams and Shannon Waters begin 2 years of training that will take them to rural Aboriginal communities and a variety of clinical sites in BC's Lower Mainland.
“We have not really been very successful in working with Aboriginal people,” says Dr. Meena Dawar, the program director. “We have imposed our own Western understanding of health and illness on this population, which is probably why we haven't worked very well in improving their health.”
Dawar hopes to change that by exposing residents to everything from addiction medicine in the inner city to placements in prisons and rural First Nations' communities, including 2 months in Inuvik. Six clinical sites have been selected, and Dawar is developing others. The Longhouse, UBC's cultural and educational centre for Aboriginal students, is also considering offering a native medicine component. Finding places for residents to practise has been “the least of her challenges,” Dawar says of the program, which is open to non-Aboriginal physicians. A greater problem is finding ways to improve “the great disparity in Aboriginal health status” and to reduce the injury rate — motor vehicle accidents, suicide and homicide are leading causes of death for Aboriginal people. “For everyone else,” says Dawar, “the main causes of death are cardiovascular disease and then cancer, yet for Aboriginal people we are dealing with injuries. Why is there such a huge discrepancy, and what can we do about it?” — Heather Kent, Vancouver