A Path Paved With Compassion
A Path Paved With Compassion
Reflecting on Vital Conversation: Be Healthy
Kindness, compassion, and humanity.
These were the key themes that emerged at London Community Foundation’s Vital Conversation: Be Healthy on February 20 at the Goodwill Community Hall.
Based on LCF’s 2018 Vital Signs report and using the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals as a guide for discussions, Be Healthy encouraged Londoners to think and talk about many of the health and well-being issues facing our community and what we can do to address them.
Five speakers shared their stories with attendees, shining a light on the experiences of many in our community whose stories often remain untold.
Psychiatrist Dr. Javeed Sukhera spoke of his time in medical school, how what he saw as a broken system lacking in humanity affected him deeply, and how having compassion for himself allowed him to help and support others with the care and attention they deserve. For Dr. Sukhera, being healthy means being human.
Robyn Hodgson and Robbie McLaughlin spoke of the 300 clients they currently serve, as well as the 50 more on their wait-list, as the Trans Health Team at the London InterCommunity Health Centre. Working towards a system that prepares and educates general practitioners to adequately serve trans folk, their hope is for a future where acceptance and understanding guide care.
Blair Henry told the story of a client at the Regional HIV/AIDS Connection’s Carepoint Consumption and Treatment Service facility, the temporary safe-consumption site. Like Blair himself, this person turned to substances to cope with chronic pain and emotional trauma after the medical support he previously relied on disappeared. The simple human desire to be at peace with oneself is a motivation we all share, and Blair’s powerful, emotional story allowed us all to reflect on our own struggles and how we cope with them.
Sarah Askew spoke of her travels in Vietnam and the Yucatan Jungles of Mexico, where women rely on reusable period care products rather than disposables. After travelling across Canada in a school bus with her family and witnessing the prevalence of period poverty, Sarah founded Mensadora/Rebel Rags. Manufacturing reusable menstrual products and donating a pad to the community for every one sold, Sarah plans to end period poverty in London and beyond, restoring the dignity of thousands of women and allowing them to become their best selves.
These four inspiring stories, as well as the interlocking, shared framework of the SDGs, informed the event’s ensuing roundtable discussions. Engaged citizens of all stripes came together in conversation and arrived at solutions to some of our most urgent health and well-being issues.
While concrete solutions like building more affordable housing, providing more educational opportunities for children to learn about health, nutrition, and diversity, and dismantling and rebuilding a siloed mental healthcare system were offered, a common chorus arose when each table was asked to report on their discussions: be kind, compassionate, understanding, and inclusive. A change in attitude, towards others, towards clients, and towards ourselves, is the first and most basic step everybody and anyone can take towards a healthier and happier London.