My participation experience in a community consultation event

Monte Strong from PAN shares his experience of being part of a community consultation event hosted by the Canadian Public Health Association (CPHA) that took place at the Centre for Sexuality in Calgary, AB on July 31st, 2024.

In addition to working as a Research Coordinator and PLDI Trainer at PAN, I occasionally participate in committees or groups with other organizations and initiatives. As an example, I am currently an advisory group member for a CPHA project titled:

“Bridging lived/living and clinical expertise to address intersectional STBBI stigma: Validating a collaboratively developed experiential eLearning intervention for clinical care providers”

CPHA had created an eLearning course called “PROVIDE SAFER, MORE INCLUSIVE CARE for sexually transmitted and blood-borne infections” for clinical care providers to support them in reducing stigma in their practice. A couple of my core project activities have been to provide feedback on the course and be involved in the design and planning of the evaluation. One evaluation-related goal of the project is to answer these research questions:

  1. What outcomes are meaningful to communities disproportionately impacted by STBBI stigma? What results would communities like to see from health and social service trainees who are completing the course?
  2. How successful is the course in reaching these outcomes?
  3. What are some of the major barriers and facilitators to applying course learnings in the settings where learners provide care/services?

As an advisory group member, I was fortunate to participate in the Calgary community consultation day that was structured as a focus group to help answer the mentioned research questions. People in the room included people with lived/living experience, health practitioners, community-based representatives, and the facilitators and support staff from CPHA and the Centre for Sexuality.

 

My participation experience felt positive and successful for the following reasons:

If you are curious about the online course, “PROVIDE SAFER, MORE INCLUSIVE CARE for sexually transmitted and blood-borne infections”, it is currently available on CPHA’s learning site in both English and French and has been accessed by over 600 learners across Canada to date, including physicians, nurses, and social workers.

 

Questions? Contact Monte Strong, Research Coordinator, [email protected].