Contact: Katelyn Giffin
Have you experienced or witnessed harm in your training (ex. mistreatment or discrimination based on your identities)? WE BELIEVE YOU! These experiences are painful and over time can have deep impacts on us as physicians and human beings.
As a resident, it can feel unsafe to speak up. We understand and recognize the barriers you face. As a learner your evaluations, career opportunities and much more are at stake.
The Anti-Racism Support group is a group of people who have also experienced these harms through our medical training and practice (see our biographies below). We strive to create an inclusive and safe space for you to speak your truth and be witnessed. Everything shared will remain confidential. Our primary goal is to support you. We only bring it forward to the program if you want us to. This is a consent-based process, meaning we do not take any action without your consent. The Experience Pathway (shown below) gives full transparency on what the process of speaking up can look like. You will not have to prove yourself/what happened to you.
We encourage you to reach out if you feel able to. Email katelyn.giffin@familymed.ubc.ca to get connected with support. When you reach out to Katelyn by email, you are not required to explain any details about what happened. If you have a request to connect with a particular mentor, please let us know and we will do our best to accommodate it.
Additional resources:
You can also reach out to your Site Director, your Program Director, your Behavioural Medicine Site Faculty, the Resident Wellness Office, the REDI Office, and the PGME Dean’s Office.
Meet the Mentors
Dr. and Elder Roberta Price
For over 40 years, Dr. Elder Roberta Price has actively shared her leadership, wisdom and teachings at UBC and throughout the Lower Mainland to assist both Indigenous and non-Indigenous community members to achieve improved outcomes in health care.
A member of the Coast Salish Snuneymuxw and Cowichan Nations, she has been instrumental in helping to create shared spaces for both Indigenous and Western approaches to healing and health. Her ongoing involvement and leadership in research projects have been key to the continued work of decolonizing health care and creating cultural safety and equity for Indigenous patients.
Dr. Amy Tan
Dr. Amy Tan is a woman of Cantonese Chinese descent, daughter of immigrants and first-generation university, medical school & grad school graduate who lives & works with disabilities. She is a palliative care & family physician, medical educator, researcher, anti-racism consultant & educator, writer and health equity advocate.
Dr. Lesley Thomas
My name is Lesley Thomas (she/they), I am a queer woman of South Indian descent. I am a family physician and mental health counsellor. My practice includes a mix of family medicine, mental health (working with individuals and groups), resident wellness, anti-racism work and rest.
Some areas of interest/curiosities that I am continually learning about are: self-compassion, somatic healing, mind-body practices, decolonization, impacts of systemic oppression on mental and physical health, identity (race, gender, sexuality etc.), land-based healing, food as medicine and ancestral knowledge systems (yoga and ayurveda).
Some of the things that bring me joy include dancing, slow forest walks, cooking ancestral recipes and connecting in community.
Dr. Janelle Syring
Dr. Janelle Syring is a Métis family doctor originally from Treaty 1 territory with roots in the Red River Settlement. She completed medical school at the University of Calgary in 2019 and is a graduate of the UBC Indigenous family medicine program in 2021. Prior to entering medicine, Dr. Syring worked as a pelvic floor physiotherapist in Ontario and Québec, specializing in supporting people living with dyspareunia. She brings a trauma-informed and harm reduction lens to her medical practice which includes full spectrum family medicine, obstetrics, gender affirming care, and supporting people living with substance use.
She lives in Calgary with her husband and their two very privileged doodles. You can find her exploring the excellent coffee shops around Calgary and hanging out with her crew at the dog park.
Dr. Syring sits on the CFPC Indigenous Health committee and co-chair’s NCIME’s faculty recruitment & retention committee
ARSG Experience Pathway
Mission: To support, educate, advocate, and facilitate restorative justice and healing for Black, Indigenous, and other racialized Family Medicine residents in their experiences with racism during their Family Medicine residency training program.
Vision: Every resident, faculty member and staff member of the Family Medicine Residency Program in UBC’s Department of Family Practice will be supported in a safe , compassionate manner that respects and celebrates their unique needs and humanity in solidarity with each other.
How we can support family practice residents who experience racism