Cultural Safety and Humility Standard
The First Nations Health Authority (FNHA) partnered with Health Standards Organization (HSO) to bring together a BC First Nations-led Cultural Safety and Humility Technical Committee to oversee the development of a HSO 75000:2022 (E) BC Cultural Safety and Humility Standard.
Review the following announcements and resources regarding its development:
- Cultural Safety and Humility Standard Celebration on First Nations Land (FNHA news story, Oct. 21, 2022)
- FNHA and HSO Release BC Cultural Safety and Humility Standard (FNHA news story, June 14, 2022)
- Transformative Change: Advancing Cultural Safety Across British Columbia (Health Standards Organization & Accreditation Canada webinar)
Framework for Cultural Safety and Humility
Cultural Safety is an outcome based on respectful engagement that recognizes and strives to address power imbalances inherent in the health care system. It results in an environment free of racism and discrimination, where people feel safe when receiving health care.
Cultural Humility is a process of self-reflection to understand personal and systemic biases and to develop and maintain respectful processes and relationships based on mutual trust. Cultural Humility involves humbly acknowledging oneself as a learner when it comes to understanding another’s experience.
– from Creating a Climate for Change
The strategic foundational items are detailed in these structural plans:
- Anti-Racism, Cultural Safety & Humility Framework (document)
- Anti-Racism, Cultural Safety & Humility Action Plan (document)
- Anti-Racism, Cultural Safety & Humility Action Plan December 2021 Update (document)
- Creating a Climate for Change (booklet)
Additional media, frameworks, and reference guides include:
- FNHA’s Policy Statement on Cultural Safety and Humility (poster)
- Key Drivers and Ideas for Change (booklet)
- Leading a Framework for Cultural Safety & Humility for First Nations in BC (PowerPoint presentation)
Territory acknowledgements information booklet
This guide will answer some common questions around why and how to acknowledge traditional First Nations territories in BC, and share wise practices from institutions across BC and Canada on how to move beyond just recognition to create concrete and systemic improvements in settler-First Nations relationships.
Access the informational toolkits below:
Declarations of commitment
In July 2015 a movement began in which health authorities and organizations declared their commitment to embedding Cultural Safety and Humility into their practices.
The BC Minister of Health, FNHA and the CEOs from BC’s six health authorities led the movement, followed in 2017 by all of the regulators that govern health professionals working in BC.
Timeline of declarations
- July – BC Ministry of Health, the FNHA and BC Regional Health Authorities – Declaration of Commitment
- BC Coroner’s Service • Declaration of Commitment
- March – BC Health Regulators – All regulated health professions commit to a safer health system for First Nations and Aboriginal People • Declaration of Commitment
- November – Providence Health Care – Healing ceremony marks start of FNHA partnership with Providence Health Care • Declaration of Commitment
- BC Ministry of Mental Health and Addictions • Declaration of Commitment
- Indigenous Services Canada, Health Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada • Declaration of Commitment
- April – Pacific Blue Cross – New partnership to deliver improved health benefits program to First Nations people in BC • Declaration of Commitment
- May – Emergency Management Services of BC – New declaration commits to cultural safety in emergency management services in BC • Declaration of Commitment
- June – Doctors of BC – Signing declaration of commitment to cultural safety and humility with Doctors of BC represents two families coming together • Declaration of Commitment
- July – Federation of Optometric Regulatory Authorities of Canada – Declaration of Commitment
- November – BC College of Family Physicians – Declaration of Commitment
- December – BC Patient Safety and Quality Council – BC Patient Safety and Quality Council signs declaration of commitment to cultural safety
Cultural Safety and Humility action webinar series
These webinars were held to encourage participation, learning, self-reflection and positive change among BC’s healthcare professionals.
The series supports the development of tools and skills for advancing Cultural Safety and Humility and understanding and integrating this work into practice and interaction with First Nations clients.
The complete archive of past webinars and support materials includes:
- Webinar 1: Leading a Framework for Cultural Safety and Humility Joe Gallagher) |Presentation Slides
- Webinar 2: Learning and Advancing the Recommendations of the Truth & Reconciliation Commission (Shelley Joseph) | Presentation Slides | Event Poster
- Webinar 3: The Importance of Story to Cultural Safety Webinar (Brad Anderson and Vanessa Mitchell) | Presentation Slides | Event Poster
- Webinar 4: Intergenerational Trauma and Institutional Avoidance (Dr. Evan Adams) | Presentation Slides | Event Poster
- Webinar 5: Pursuing Cultural Safety (Carol Peters) | Presentation Slides
- Webinar 6: Cultural Humility and Nursing in BC (Dr. Becky Palmer, Inez Louis, Lisa Sam) | Presentation Slides | Event Poster
- Webinar 7: Cultural Safety: Respect and Dignity in Relationships: Indigenous Peoples and the Health Care System (Hilary McGregor) | Presentation Slides | Event Poster
- Webinar 8: Racism as a Determinant of Health (Dr. Charlotte Loppie) | Presentation Slides
- Webinar 9: Cultural Safety Framework and Action Plan from Vancouver Coastal Health (Leslie Bonshor) | Presentation Slides | Event Poster
- Webinar 10: Responding to Anti-Indigenous Racism in the Health Care System (Yvette Ringham Cowan and Laurie Harding) | Presentation Slides | Event Poster
- Webinar 11: Leading with Culture in First Nations Community Contexts (Elder Virginia Peters and Dr. Shannon McDonald) | Presentation Slides
“It starts with me” campaign
In 2016, FNHA carried out a campaign to support health service staff in achieving the collective goal of culturally safe health services for First Nations people in BC. The campaign was called #It Starts With Me.
The materials listed here were produced to support the initiative. These materials would be useful for any organization that wishes to carry out their own Cultural Safety and Humility campaign.
Campaign resource assets include:
Paddling together: Trauma-informed and culturally safe care
This report aims to guide health service organizations in implementing culturally safe and trauma-informed care. It is an example of a novel, community-driven model of engagement with Indigenous communities that can improve Cultural Safety and Humility in research and knowledge exchange. The authors hope that the model will inspire and inform more ethical ways of engaging with Indigenous people and communities, that places their priorities and needs at the centre of the work.
Read the final publication here: