I have been a practising family physician in Hamilton since completing my residency with McMaster University in 2017. Over the past several years, I have sought to address the health challenges faced by my patients by focusing on both their individual medical needs, and the social and structural determinants affecting their health and the health of our community. In medical school, this meant advocating against the Interim Federal Health Program cuts for refugee claimants and starting a student-led immunization catch-up clinic for refugees in partnership with Refuge Hamilton. In residency, I continued this community partnership by establishing family medicine resident-led clinics at Refuge Hamilton to expand access to primary care and enhance family medicine trainees’ awareness of the unique health concerns of newcomers in Hamilton.

As a newly practising family physician in 2017, my colleagues and I were struck by the increasing rates of opioid overdose in our community. Together, we worked to identify the gaps in care locally for people who use drugs and bring community partners together to work towards a solution. In early 2018, we launched an inpatient Substance Use Service at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Hamilton General Hospital to provide care for our highest risk patients after being admitted to hospital with substance-related concerns, including overdose. This year, our Substance Use Service at St. Joseph’s Hospital was successful in obtaining a $4.3 million grant from Health Canada to launch a peer support program. The peer support program will create jobs for people with lived experience to rebuild trust and directly support people who use drugs in hospital and after discharge to the community.

With rates of opioid overdose deaths in Hamilton far exceeding the provincial average, I worked with the Shelter Health Network and Hamilton Urban Core Community Health Centre to open the city’s first Overdose Prevention Site. The OPS would go on to become the city’s first and only official supervised consumption site, now slated to close in March 2025 due to the Ford government’s legislation. For the past year, I have been the Medical Director for the YWCA’s Safer Use Space, where over 100 overdoses have been reversed.

Given the disproportionate burden our community members face due to the housing crisis, I have focused much of my clinical and research work on the health of people who are unhoused. I work with both the Shelter Health Network and the HAMSMaRT to provide primary care and substance use care to people experiencing homelessness. My patients have taught me the true meaning of resilience, and they also know what it is we need to do to eliminate homelessness: low-barrier affordable and supportive housing and income assistance that moves beyond legislated poverty.

Recognizing the importance of systems change in impacting the health of our community, I have served as a representative on the Hamilton Drug Strategy, Hamilton Opioid Action Table, and as the co-chair for the Greater Hamilton Health Network’s Harm Reduction and Treatment Working Group. Through these tables I have worked with other stakeholders at the intersection of healthcare and social services to better address the needs of our community members. More recently, I was appointed to Hamilton’s Public Health Sub-Committee, tasked with making recommendations to City Council on policy matters and emerging issues related to Public Health.

It would be my honour to use my experience as a front-line healthcare worker and health advocate to represent Hamilton Centre in Queen’s Park!