Shared Humanity is an online learning module that was born out of a partnership between Dr. Javeed Sukhera, MD, PhD, FRCPC and mindyourmind. Dr. Sukhera who is at Western University, was conducting research on biases in the mental health care system; particularly the barrier it creates when health care providers hold a stigma or bias (that they may not even be aware of) towards the patients they treat, and when the young people seeking care have biases towards those who work in health care. He wanted to create real change in these experiences, and his idea was to create a way for both parties to see the humanity in each other – hence, “Shared Humanity”.
Dr. Sukhera approached mindyourmind to co-create a set of e-modules to create something tangible out of this research and passion. We set to work and curated a focus group for our design lab process, where youth with lived experience along with medical and nursing students joined us for a weekend to start bringing Dr. Sukhera’s vision to life. We explored several different topics pertaining to what happens from the moment you go to an emergency room to seek help for mental health concerns. We discussed who the key people are that you encounter in the ER, and how their attitude and compassion (or lack of) impact your experience as a patient in their care; do you trust them and their recommendations for diagnosis or treatment? On the flip side of that, we wanted the youth to also see the perspectives and experiences of nurses and doctors. Did they realize what could be impacting that practitioner during their day, before they even get to their patients? We wanted to highlight possible scenarios that could be happening in the day of the life of both patient and professional, in hopes that they would experience more understanding and empathy for each other. During the design process we also asked everyone to share what didn’t work when they reached out for help, so that they could then brainstorm possible solutions for the future.
Over the course of the project, we developed two modules to help change the narrative between youth and medical professionals with a goal to break down the stigma within these two demographics and shine a light on the humanity between both; encouraging health care providers to bring more of their authentic self to the table and see the young people they’re interacting with as humans who aren’t at their best, and for the young people to see that the health care providers they’re seeking help from are also humans who may be dealing with struggles of their own.The modules are easy to move through and allow whoever is facilitating to lead rich and meaningful conversations to promote self-awareness and growth!
Take a peek at Shared Humanity – Youth Experience!