Building your toolbox for more equitable healthcare: Guidance on health equity training

The Health Equity Impact Assessment (HEIA) Community of Interest invites you to its upcoming webinar on health equity training.

Health equity training is part of a toolbox that organizations can use to support staff to provide more inclusive and equitable services. But how can you incorporate meaningful health equity training into your organization?

This round table webinar will discuss ways to enhance health equity training in a healthcare setting. The panellists will share their ideas for improving staff health equity training, drawing upon what they have learned from developing and running health equity training in organizations across Ontario. The webinar will explore the following topics:

• the functions of staff health equity training
• what to consider prior to developing the training
• some features of effective health equity training
• the role of psychological safety in health equity training.
  
  

Register here.

This webinar supports the use of a resource developed by the HEIA Champions Group: “Promising practices for health equity training in a healthcare setting.”

About the presenters

Aamna Ashraf (she/her) is Manager of Health Equity at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH). She is a well-known figure in the field of health equity and is an experienced professional in the areas of program and policy implementation, stakeholder development and partnerships. Aamna holds a master’s degree in education (Counselling Psychology) and has worked in the not for profit sector for over 20 years. As an advocate for health equity, Aamna leads the award winning Immigrant and Refugee Mental Health Project and serves as one of Ontario's Health Equity Impact Assessment Champions. She previously worked as a Senior Program Advisor in refugee resettlement with the Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration. Before this she was the Director of the Peel Newcomer Strategy – the Local Immigration Partnership for Peel region. Aamna has also worked at United Way Peel and York as well as leading service development for diverse populations at Canadian Mental Health Association Toronto.

Samiya Abdi (she/her) is a Senior Program Specialist with Public Health Ontario. She holds a master’s degree in public health, as well as a postgraduate diploma in social innovation and systems thinking. Samiya has over 14 years of experience in strategic planning, program development, management, and evaluation within government, non-profits, and corporations. Her practice is grounded in action to challenge multiple and intersecting forms of oppression; in understanding marginalization in knowledge production, research, and practice; and in building equitable systems.

Maria Papadimitriou (they/them or she/her) is Co-Lead for Equity, Inclusion, Diversity and Anti-Racism at Ontario Health where they work in collaboration with health system, and cross-sectoral partners to advance health equity in Ontario. Previously, Maria was the Manager of Health Equity at Health Quality Ontario. Maria’s expertise is in leveraging collaborative strategy to execute social change within organizations and across systems. Throughout their career, Maria has worked in partnership with communities to co-develop system innovations and build organizational capacity to improve access, experience and outcomes with health and social services. Maria spend many years working in collaboration with child and youth community mental health service providers to co-develop substance use service improvements with youth and families and to build system capacity to provide harm reduction supports to youth. Maria’s formal education includes a Masters in Public Health (MPH) from the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University, a Masters in Behavioural Neuroscience (MSc) from Queen’s University and a Masters Certificate in Adult Training and Development from Schulich School of Business