Skip to main content Skip to main navigation Skip to page-level navigation Go to the Disability Resource Centre Website Go to the DRC Booking Accommodation Portal Go to the Inclusive Technology Lab Website
The University of British Columbia
UBC - A Place of Mind
The University of British Columbia Okanagan campus
UBC Okanagan News
  • Research
  • People
    • Student Profile
    • Faculty Profile
    • Alumni Spotlight
  • Campus Life
    • Campus News
    • Student Life
    • Teaching & Learning
  • Community Engagement
  • About the Collection
    • Stories for Media
  • UBCO Events
  • Search All Stories
Home / 2011 / March / 22 / UBC partners with Okanagan Nation Alliance to promote cultural safety in health care
Indigenous

UBC partners with Okanagan Nation Alliance to promote cultural safety in health care

March 22, 2011

UBC cultural safety researchers include, from left, professors Rachelle Hole, Lawrence Berg, Joan Bottorff and Mike Evans.

UBC cultural safety researchers include, from left, professors Rachelle Hole, Lawrence Berg, Joan Bottorff and Mike Evans.

The Okanagan Nation Alliance (ONA) and UBC’s Okanagan campus have entered into a Community Research Agreement (CRA) that aims to strengthen cultural safety and improve Aboriginal health care in the Okanagan Valley.

The project is titled Establishing Cultural Safety and Effecting Organizational Change for Aboriginal Health Care in Urban Centres of the Okanagan Valley. One of the community partners to actively participate in the initiative is the Vernon Jubilee Hospital, located in the Okanagan Nation territory.

“In respect of a Memorandum of Understanding signed in 2005, this research partnership establishes a relationship of active collaboration and participation that will build upon the working relationship between the ONA and UBC’s Okanagan campus,” says Pauline Terbasket, Executive Director of the ONA.

“It is an agreement that supports Syilx (Okanagan) and other Aboriginal students to do research in the Syilx (Okanagan) territory to enhance mainstream programs and services for Aboriginal people,” notes Vanessa Mitchell, ONA Health Lead.

UBC principal investigators in the project, supported by a Canadian Institutes of Health Research operating grant, include Lawrence Berg, Rachelle Hole, Mike Evans and Joan Bottorff.  Other partners include representatives from the Okanagan Nation Alliance, Interior Health, The En’owkin Centre and the Friendship Centres.

“Cultural safety is about creating a safe space so Aboriginal people have a voice in determining personal and family health outcomes,” says Hole. “The practice of cultural safety in health care establishes an awareness of personal cultural realities and attitudes. In accordance with cultural safety practices, the project has developed as a participatory action research approach committed to the active engagement of members of Aboriginal communities and their institutions.”

“The CRA demonstrates a respectful dialogue and agreement between our community members and researchers working in our traditional territory to undertake research in a manner consistent with Syilx customs and protocols,” says Carmella Alexis, Syilx (Okanagan) Nation member and graduate student with the project.

The Okanagan Nation Alliance — representative of the Syilx (Okanagan) people — represents eight member communities: seven in Canada and one in the United States.

Much more information about cultural safety in the Okanagan is available from the Cultural Safety Project website www.ubc.ca/okanagan/culturalsafety/.

— 30 —

Media Contact

Jody Jacob
Assistant Communications Coordinator
University Relations

The University of British Columbia
Okanagan campus
Tel: 250-807-8463
E-mail: jody.jacob@ubc.ca

Content type: Media Release
More content from: Faculty of Health and Social Development, Irving K Barber School of Arts and Sciences (prior July 2020), School of Social Work

Trending Stories

  • Work Study opens new doors for undergraduates
  • Strengthening Indigenous community through research
  • Finding new life for plastic waste
  • Reframing conversations around earthquakes
  • Safeguarding water quality
All Stories
Contact Media Relations

About UBC Okanagan

UBC’s Okanagan campus is an innovative hub for research and learning founded in partnership with local Indigenous peoples, the Syilx Okanagan Nation, in whose traditional, ancestral and unceded territory the campus resides. The most established and influential global rankings all consistently place UBC in the top five per cent of universities in the world, and among the top three Canadian universities.

The Okanagan campus combines a globally recognized UBC education with a tight-knit and entrepreneurial community that welcomes students and faculty from around the world in British Columbia’s stunning Okanagan Valley. For more visit ok.ubc.ca.

Discover more about UBC Okanagan

Find a Program Admissions Book a Tour UBCO Facts
UBC Okanagan Campus News, University Relations

Innovation Precinct Annexation 1 (IA1)
3505 Spectrum Court
Kelowna, BC Canada V1V 2Z1

We respectfully acknowledge the Syilx Okanagan Nation and their peoples, in whose traditional, ancestral, unceded territory UBC Okanagan is situated.

 

Search all stories

Subscribe to receive news by email

Visit UBC's Vancouver news room

Global and Admin Messages

News

Okanagan Campus

TikTok icon Linkedin icon

UBC Okanagan News
Okanagan Campus
3333 University Way
Kelowna, BC Canada V1V 1V7
Find us on
  
Back to top
The University of British Columbia
  • Emergency Procedures |
  • Terms of Use |
  • Copyright |
  • Accessibility