Making your practice welcoming and inclusive is essential to keep abreast with changes in society. People who belong to underrepresented groups (e.g., ethnic minority groups, living with a disability, LGBTQIA+ etc) report poorer experience from encounters with healthcare professionals than other people. Whilst well represented in the population people in these groups are often marginalised and, in some cases, reluctant to identify or seek help for fear of how they will be perceived or treated. Osteopaths and other healthcare professionals could greatly improve the care they provide and the experience for these groups by increasing their awareness and knowledge of the specific needs some patient groups have, and by learning the appropriate communication skills required to ensure everyone is comfortable in the treatment room.
This course will support you towards making changes towards your marketing and communication strategies to widen your appeal to patients from all demographics by demonstrating a welcoming, understanding and inclusive practice approach.
There is a follow up 1.5 hour online session which will be run on 20th February 19:00-20:30 for anyone who wishes to discuss any situations that they have had in practice since attending the course and how they approached them.
Osteopathic practice standards and other CPD elements covered
A) Communication and patient partnership A1, A2, A6, A7
B) Knowledge, skills and performance B4
C) Safety and quality in practice C1, C2, C6
D) Professionalism D2, D3, D6
Learning objectives
- To understand how power and privilege (and lack of) can impact therapeutic alliance and treatment outcomes
- To understand the differences between sex and gender
- To explore the different sexual orientations
- To understand the language that is used when these issues are discussed (e.g. pansexual, ableism, centring, micro-aggressions, etc)
- To understand the different forms of disability, including hidden and visible ones
- To have tools to welcome patients from different backgrounds and cultures in your practice
- To expand, be more inclusive in our marketing and communication strategies
- To edit your case history or information gathering forms to make them more inclusive and accessible.
Timetable
09:00-09:30 Registration
09:30-09:50 Speakers’ and Delegates’ introduction
09:50-10:15 Why do we need to become more aware and more inclusive? How can privilege and oppression influence our clinical encounters?
10:15-11:00 Case-based group discussions
11:00-11:15 Break
11:15-12:00 A discursive workshop on factors which may determine sex and gender and how our thoughts on these factors affect communication and information gathering.
12:00-12:45 What do our information gathering forms look like and are they prompting us or the patient appropriately? How might we edit and adjust these forms to support inclusive communication.
12:45-13:45 Lunch
13:45-14:30 With disabilities and ethnic minorities we will explore culture, heritage and ableism and their meanings for the individuals. As part of this exploration, we will look at othering and centring.
14:30-15:15 Ethnic minorities
15.15-15.30 Break
15:30-16:15 Workshop on faith, ethnic minorities and disabilities - practical exercise
16:15-17:00 We will explore harmful stereotypes of body image
17:00-17:30:Talking circle and closing the session
1.5 hours online follow up session 19:30-21:00 20 February 2023.
Please bring along to the course a blank copy of your case notes.
Also be prepared to discuss a recent case where things didn’t go well or you struggled potentially with a patient belonging to an underrepresented group.
Course suitability
Osteopaths, physiotherapists, chiropractors and other allied health professionals interested in running an inclusive practice.
Recommended pre-course reading
Nixon, S. A. (2019). The coin model of privilege and critical allyship: implications for health.
BMC Public Health,
19(1), 1-13. Open access here:
https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-019-7884-9