Goals and Actions

SPOT Students

Student Advocacy ~ Active student leadership has been ongoing to establish open communication with the directorship of SPOT about antiracism and equity with the support of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences Equity Committee.

Summer 2020, Open Letter to SPOT Director's Council

November 5, 2020, Reply from SPOT Director’s Council

January 2021, POTUS Letter about representation in the curriculum to SPOT Director's Council

March 10^th, 2021, POTUS & SPOTGSA letter of updates to SPOT Director’s Council

March 30^th, 2021, Invitation from SPOT Director’s Council for student involvement in EDI Strategic Planning

Vice President Equity positions were created in both the SPOTGSA and the POTUS and these positions continue to expand.

The VP Equity students maintained communication between students and the school leadership via:  

• Keynote organized by SPOTGSA in June 2021 – Medical Ableism: When healthcare is what should be cured
• POTUS launched an equity and wellness educational platform on social media @potusequity_wellness.
• Updated the Equity & Wellness Resource Guide

OT Admissions Committee

As a member of the OT Program REPAIR group, the OTAC has endeavoured to review the current admissions practices with respect to social accountability and inequities. One of the steps in this process involved examining the OT student diversity data from 2014-2019 that was collected by the Widening Participation Committee. The results indicated that Indigenous and Black students are under-represented in the OT program, alongside those with disabilities. Collaborations are ongoing in order to address the identified inequities. The chair of the OTAC is a partner with the Indigenous Health Professional Program and the OTAC has designated 2 places for Indigenous applicants. The OTAC is included in a work group in which McGill health science programs and McGill Enrolment services are working together to identify barriers and ensure that best practices are being employed during the admission process with respect to equity, diversity and inclusion. Further, the OTAC Chair is currently participating in a project funded by the Global Health Programs that is exploring contextualized approaches, strategies and barriers for recruitment and admissions of Black and racialized OT applicants. The findings and actions of the project entitled From concern to commitment: Learning to center Black perspectives in reconfiguring admissions in Occupational Therapy will be made available soon. The conclusions of this project will be used to inform the 2022 OTAC objectives.

Fieldwork Education

The Academic Clinical Coordination Education (ACCE) team is engaged in multiple equity and inclusiveness actions. These include the development of anti-racist content in clinical seminars, customized fieldwork course assignments that attend to cultural safety, and the implementation of an evidence-based pilot for student accommodations in field work. The ACCE engages in long-term and reciprocal partnerships with students and clinical educators. For many years now the ACCE has prioritized relationships with under-resourced sites and Indigenous communities by establishing fieldwork opportunities at the request of community partners. These opportunities include fieldwork in Cree (Eeyou Istchee) territory, Nunavik, and with community organizations such as Logifem, a women’s shelter.

Several new initiatives and partnerships are underway within the OT curriculum and program:

• Becoming Equitable through Accountable Doing: Implementing a regular BEADing series for students to share equity concerns and ideas. This is a closed OT student space co-facilitated with the VP Equity student representatives.
• Collaboration with the WELL Office to offer closed gathering spaces for under-represented learners.
• Event planning a continuing professional development activity on Diversity and Equity as part of the annual Spring Clinical Day 2022 with our clinical partners.
• Designing formal, sustainable and inclusive mechanisms for students and faculty to engage in continuous and responsive equity learning, appraisal and improvement of the curriculum.
• Developing anti-oppressive teaching guidelines.
• Identifying student-centred equity indicators at the level of program evaluation.
• Implementing HotSpot, an OT faculty peer-learning space to share successes and challenges with tackling EDI conversations and 'hot moments’ in class.
• VP Equity students working in collaboration with Medical Herstory to offer a student workshop on gender bias in healthcare.
• VP Equity students engaged in Justice-Centered Rehab initiatives, including discussion events and educational posts.
• Dynamic co-creation of the SPOT Expanding Horizons Journal Club open to faculty, staff, and students to discuss articles that prompt reflection on how we can cultivate openness to diverse experiences, ways of knowing, knowledge systems, and perspectives on rehabilitation, person-centered relationships, caring and healing, and other aspects of practice.