Integrating social justice advocacy into a family health team: Successes and lessons learned

• Published in: Canadian family physician 2021-12, Vol.67 (12), p.923-929
• Main Authors: Shoucri, Rami, Dorman, Kathryn, Green, Samantha, Bloch, Gary, Swartz, Alyssa
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Advocacy; Canada; Criminal justice; Families & family life; Family Health; Health disparities; Health Personnel; Humans; Patient Advocacy; Program Description; Social Justice; Social networks
• ISSN: 0008-350X; 1715-5258
• DOI: 10.46747/cfp.6712923

Health is largely determined by socioeconomic factors. Health care providers can potentially address these factors through social justice advocacy. However, many individual providers and teams have not taken on this role in Canada. To address identified barriers in integrating social justice advocacy into the practice of individual health care providers and interdisciplinary teams. An Advocacy Tool Kit was created in 2017 to build individual capacity for social justice advocacy. An advocacy framework was adopted in 2018 that reiterated the commitment of the Department of Family and Community Medicine at St Michael's Hospital in Toronto, Ont, to social justice advocacy and outlined 2 new processes: to adopt and implement specific departmentwide campaigns to advocate for social justice; and to respond to inquiries about social justice issues and external advocacy campaigns. The initiatives have helped integrate social justice advocacy into the core activities of the interdisciplinary primary care team and can likely be replicated by other interested groups across the country.