CFPC's Actions on the Recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada
October 2017
The College of Family Physicians of Canada
The College of Family Physicians of Canada (CFPC) is dedicated to advocating for improvements in the health care of Indigenous people. Our Indigenous Health Working Group (IHWG) brings together champions in this area who facilitate and contribute to the CFPC’s many efforts to achieve equitable health outcomes.
To address the calls for action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, the CFPC has:
- Made Indigenous health and cultural safety in family medicine a strategic priority in the CFPC Strategic Plan 2017–2022; this will ensure Indigenous health receives greater attention in medical education and training by:
- Working with the IHWG to improve coverage of Indigenous health in the new conjoint Accreditation Standards
- Promoting Indigenous health in our new Red Book, the specific standards for family medicine residency training programs
- Raising the profile of Indigenous health in the CanMEDS-FM framework of competencies
- Engaged with Indigenous communities by having the CFPC President and the Executive Director and CEO visit Alderville, Ontario; Chisasibi, Quebec; and Winnipeg, Manitoba, to learn first hand about community health needs
- Emphasized the issue of systemic racism in family medicine by producing a guide, Health and Health Care Implications of Systemic Racism on Indigenous Peoples in Canada, and offering relevant educational sessions at our annual Family Medicine Forum
- Deepened our interorganizational collaboration with the Indigenous Physicians Association of Canada and the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada; these groups met at an all-day gathering in March 2017 to discuss ways of extending and embedding this collaboration to deliver real outcomes for Indigenous communities
- Implemented two new leadership awards recognizing Indigenous medical students and family medicine residents
- Launched the Rural Road Map for Action, a plan to enhance equitable access to health care and improve patient outcomes in rural and remote communities in Canada; this includes specific recommendations for increasing the recruitment of Indigenous medical students and enhancing cultural safety training to improve patient care
Our collective work on improving health outcomes for Indigenous people of Canada is ongoing. These actions represent the early steps on a long road, with much further to go. The CFPC is committed to this journey.
To request more details about these initiatives, contact the IHWG, or provide your feedback, please email [email protected].
