“How can I become a more culturally safe leader in the context of MAiD?”

Talking Each Other Home: Leadership and Cultural Safety in MAiD is an action-oriented research project that was developed between the release of the In Plain Sight report on racism in BC and the passage of Bill C-7, which expanded access to Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD). As colleagues and MA students in the same Health Leadership cohort at Royal Roads University, Jessica and Cindy shared concerns about how the coinciding events might impact Indigenous patients and communities. Having previously collaborated on a project to demonstrate the sustainability of Indigenous community-designed and led- research, they decided to work together again, this time to proactively identify ways in which settler leaders could support conditions for cultural safety in the context of MAiD.

This focus was chosen because many leaders in MAiD - policy analysts, program managers, and practitioners - are settlers. While cultural safety is determined exclusively by the patient experiencing care, leaders who are culturally sensitive and culturally aware are better equipped to provide care, design policies, and develop programs that Indigenous patients might consider safe. Cultural safety in MAiD research led by Indigenous peoples for Indigenous peoples is still needed, but until that research is ready, settlers can and should evaluate their own practices and lean into the existing recommendations from Indigenous peoples to guide their actions and decisions.

Using their respective settler and Indigenous backgrounds, the recommendations from In Plain Sight and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission: Calls to Action, and a method combination of guided journaling and talking story, Jessica and Cindy sought to help Jessica, herself a settler healthcare leader, answer the following questions:

• “How do I, as a settler healthcare leader, currently support patients and programs areas with needs related to cultural safety and/or MAiD?”

• “What barriers make it difficult for me to become a more culturally safe leader in the context of MAiD?”

• “What opportunities might help me support the diverse cultural values and needs of Indigenous peoples in BC in the context of MAiD?”

By the end of the project, Jessica and Cindy had developed a series of recommendations and a self-guided education module to support settler health leaders with improving cultural safety in their own MAiD policy and practice. The findings, the module, and more information about this project are available on this website.