‘We’re real people with real lives’: Patient partner in northern BC shares the power of telling your own story

Photo: Christina LaBerge is a patient partner living in northern BC.

 

Christina LaBerge cares deeply about creating safer spaces for patients, especially in northern BC.

“The north has some really unique health needs,” she says. “Because people are spread out, it’s much harder to access things like housing, transportation and specialized care. All these things affect our health and our ability to live healthy lives.”

Christina is no stranger to BC’s health-care system. In her professional life, she works in the field of mental health. As a patient partner, she’s been involved in many patient engagement and quality improvement projects over the years.

Her desire to support patient experiences in the north led her to volunteer on the Northern BC Research and Quality Conference planning team. The conference is held every two years and attracts health-care staff, researchers, clinicians, patients and the public.

“For me and my loved ones, we’ve had some very difficult experiences in our health-care journeys. I wanted to bring to light that patients are not just statistics or numbers,” she says. “We’re real people with real lives.”

Christina joined a group of patient and family partners for the 2021 and 2023 conferences. She helped ensure that patient priorities were reflected in the conference’s vision, topics, invited speakers, and event accessibility and delivery.

At the 2023 event, Christina was invited to share parts of her own story and the importance of listening to lived experience.

“That presentation was right after an incredibly challenging time in my family’s life. I shared some very personal things — I talked about my grandmother, my child, myself,” says Christina. “And while that was hard, I felt like it would bring value in that moment. It’s very hard to look at someone as just a data point when they’re standing right in front of you, telling their story.”

After her talk, both health-care providers and patients thanked Christina for sharing her perspective. Some of them had never heard a patient’s story before.

The 2023 event saw over 200 registrants and over 100 presenters. It was well-received, with many agreeing that the event helped them build new skills in research, quality improvement or policy.

The conference is co-hosted by Northern Health and the University of Northern British Columbia. The BC SUPPORT Unit, Northern Centre provided support for patient partner involvement and staff support.

“Patient partners open up a whole new world of perspectives and opportunities you wouldn’t have thought of,” says Marcelo Bravo. He is the co-lead of the Northern Centre, BC SUPPORT Unit, and lead, patient-oriented research and KT capacity building, Northern Health. “Christina and the other partners got us to consider what we might be missing when we look at research on its own — like what matters to patients, plain language, or reaching out to the public. It’s exciting to create this kind of legacy together.”

The BC SUPPORT Unit, part of Michael Smith Health Research BC, is a provincial initiative that moves evidence developed with patients and communities into practice. The BC SUPPORT Unit, Northern Centre connects care providers and decision-makers at Northern Health with the region’s academic, patient and community partners.

Christina hopes that sharing her perspective will bring providers and patients closer together and make space for other patients to share their own stories.

“To change our system, we need diverse people — researchers, educators, advocates, doctors and patients,” says Christina. “There doesn’t have to be a sole knowledge holder or a single person who has to get things right. When everyone shares the work, we get to breathe and lighten that load a little. I think that’s the only way we can build up a better health-care system as a whole.”