Interviewed by Stephanie Molloy, PhT
Northing lights taken by Erin in Chisasibi, Quebec
Hi Erin, can you start by telling us a bit about yourself and your identity?
Absolutely! My name is Erin and I’m an Islander from the east coast of Newfoundland. I grew up near the ocean and love the outdoors. On my dads side of the family is of settler origin from Ireland. While my moms side has both Scandinavian and Inuit origin.
I find that I am very connected to my Indigenous heritage and over the past 10 years have been trying to reconnect with family and the community. One of my favourite ways has been learning how to traditionally bead. I have learned how to work with many different textiles such as felt, moose hide, and rabbit fur.
Another massive part of my identity is that I am a person with a disability. In 2016, I was diagnosed with a chronic condition called Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME). It’s a rare condition without a known cause or cure. At its worst, it left me bedridden with massive brain fog and unable to work or study efficiently. When I first got my diagnosis, I was both relieved and scared - I was happy that this wasn’t in my head but I didn’t know how my life would turn out. Since then, I have found a series of health management tools that have allowed me to live a close to normal life. I still have brain fog and have fatigue flare ups from time-to-time.
Even though my disability made my university career a difficult one, I managed to complete a bachelors and 2 masters. I am now a certified therapeutic recreation specialist and a physiotherapist. I am currently working in the private sector in Quebec specializing in orthopedics and women's health.
Additionally, I am an adventure enthusiast, avid reader, and am currently training for an Olympic triathlon!
How did having a disability shape your grad school experience?
I feel like my second grad school experience was pretty wild to begin with. I moved to Montreal - an epicenter of the pandemic - in 2020. That was a major life stress right there. I think anyone moving away from home and their support system will find it difficult, and the pandemic just added another layer to that.
My disability definitely changed the way I have to do everything in my life. I have to be more aware of my sleep, what foods I eat, life stressors, scheduling, and how often I am exercising.
Physiotherapy school is very grueling in the amount of information you need to know in such a short period of time. Even before I started studying I felt behind. Because of Covid-19, all of our classes were online and our laboratory components in person. I found that staring at a screen for many hours a day made me so tired. I’d find myself having to take naps mid-lecture to ensure I had enough energy to make it through the in-person lab. It also limited my studying time and abilities, I would lose focus so quickly and if I had a flare up, I could be out for a few days. In a lot of ways, my disability made grad school a lot harder. But it reminded me of my strength and perseverance. Physiotherapy school is hard. It’s hard for people who do not have disabilities, but this just added another layer on to it.
A quote from Erin: "We are the generation that will create ways for more equitable and sustainable care"
And how did your Inuk identity shape your grad school experience?
My identity as an Inuk is still something evolving. I feel like I need to give some back story to this before I answer. So, I only learned about my Inuit heritage when I was about 10 years old. My mother got her status from the government and I didn’t really know what that meant. It wasn’t until later that I really grew to understand and appreciate the culture from my mothers side of the family. It was about 5-6 years ago when I really started to connect with the culture. Reading books written by indigenous authors, listening to Inuktitut and trying to learn some words.
At McGill University, they have a building called the First People House which helps students who are Indigenous connect and find their footing at the university. Here is where I met with elders, got to do beadings, and learned so much. I think that this portion of my physiotherapy school journey really helped to ground me. It just felt so meaningful to me.
This identity also helped shape my grad studies experience because it made me focus on the injustices and racism that are so prominent in our western culture. It made me join groups such as “Global Health Rehabilitation Initiative” and the “Justice Centered Rehab” that are based on calling out these injustices and towards creating a better and equitable health care system.
A sunset in Chisasibi, Quebec taken by Erin.
What type of barriers did you face during physiotherapy school, in regards to disability or race? Overall did you feel supported by your school?
The part of the school that organized exams and OSCEs for people were kind and organized.
I also had some specific professors who really supported me and went above and beyond to ensure I felt comfortable and that I succeeded in my studies. One of the cardiology teaching assistants watched the Netflix documentary “Unrested” when she heard I had CFS to understand what I was going through. That meant the world to me. She sat down with me at the lab one day and just said “I am so sorry that you have to live with this, the fact that you are here, smiling, ready to learn is incredible. I know I can’t do a lot to support you, but if there is anything, I will do it”. And I still remember it 3 years later, it was just so nice to feel supported in a province that I barely knew anybody.
Another example was my professor for one of our ethics classes. Dr. Shaun Cleaver was one of the first people at McGill to learn about my disability. Dr. Cleaver does a lot of amazing work in his own community and globally. He’s one of those empathic people who always make you feel better by the end of a conversation. He was also very helpful and supportive during my time at McGill. He’s the professor who told me to keep going even when times were extremely hard. He saw my potential and ensured I had the opportunities to use it.
It’s the teachers like these who really made the difference to my experience in school. Often times it felt like the student voices weren’t heard by faculty or management. Sometimes that made it difficult for me, but I made it through.
I’m glad that amidst the difficulties you had some significant connections and support from the faculty, it’s so important to have support during grad school especially without added challenges. That being said, is there any advice that you would give to students with disabilities or are racialized applying for or in school now?
Don’t give up who you are to fit in an outdated system. You haven’t made it this far to only come this far. Healthcare is changing, systematic changes are coming. We are the generation that will create ways for more equitable and sustainable care.
We need more people like us to be practitioners. The coin model of privilege by Stephanie Nixon is an amazing example of this. She discusses the fact that privilege impacts health equity. Picture a coin, there is a top and a bottom and the coin itself, the coin itself represents a system inequality. Those on top are those who are privileged and those on bottom are those who are marginalized. She states “you find yourself on which side of the coin just by who you happen to be” and that those who are on the bottom of the coin/those most affected by the systematic problems are the experts! They are aware of the faults in the system and must be listened to when drawing attention to the system at fault AND call out that there are people who benefit from this system being the way that it is.
Our healthcare profession needs you more than ever. Use your voice to help create a better framework for healthcare to stand on. It won’t be easy, but it will be worth it.
Image depicting Dr. Stephanie Nixon's Coin Model. There is an image of a coin. On the top face of the coin it is labelled "privilege" with the notes: you have advantage others do not, you did not earn it, you have it because of who you happen to be. The coin itself is labelled "system of inequality" with the notes: the social structure that produces and maintains inequality, e.g. sexism, racism, ableism. The bottom of the coin is labelled "oppression" with the notes: you have disadvantage others do not, you did not earn it, you have it because of who you happen to be.
Let’s discuss your professional practice now.
How would you say having CFS/ME informs your practice?
Having a disability always gives a different framework to how you perceive injury and I think that while it obviously impacts my life, it has also granted me a lot more insight on healthcare, how our bodies work, and what happens to our lives when they don't work the way we want them to. So in that regard, I think that my disability has informed my practice a lot by allowing me to have my own perspective on disability. I think it also just informs the way I practice because I come in with a very open and empathetic lens. I try to ask questions that are not the typical questions of a standardized evaluation. I try to really understand the client’s lifestyle, because an injury, while yes it causes pain, also influences so many other components of that person's life. I think being able to treat someone’s life as a whole, instead of just treating the injury, will really help them not only with their injury but after it heals as well.
That makes a lot of sense, that’s a very holistic view! In the same vein, how would you say being Inuk inform your practice?
Overall, I think that this part of my identity informs my practice mostly by understanding that I learned physiotherapy through a Western Colonial Medical Healthcare lens and it's important to know that this is not the only lens. There are so many traditional ways of healing not only in Indigenous cultures but all different cultures around the world. I’ve learned that it's important to have that conversation with my client to ensure that the way I am using the healthcare that I have been trained and am insured in is not compensating for or interrupting their own spiritual or cultural healing and Medicine.
How does the intersection of your two identities affect/inform your practice?
I think I'm still learning how my own identities affect me as a person in general.
So when it comes to my practice I think it mostly informs it by just knowing that sometimes we need to go a little bit deeper for an answer. We need to be empathetic and caring. We need to think outside the box for our patients' care plan to ensure that the care we're giving them is good for them as a person and not just good for their injury. Because there's a million exercises we can give for a knee, or any other joint, but there might only be five or ten that work for that person.
A photo of Erin sitting on some steps.
What would you like other health professionals to know about disabled health rehab workers?
I think one of the biggest things is that we're more common than people realize. Oftentimes people in healthcare are perceived as being healthy people because we have to promote Health to society and to our patients. But what does Health look like? I think it's great having this diversity of people who have disabilities in our profession, primarily because we finally give a voice to so many people who do not follow that strict definition of “healthy person”. Just because we might have to do some things differently doesn't mean we can't do them well.
I think in general I would also just want able-bodied Healthcare professionals to educate themselves on different disabilities and chronic conditions that can impact people. And to listen to us when we say a system, or a way of thinking, or a way the workplace works may not be appropriate.
What would you like patients to know about disabled health rehab workers?
That we’re the same as everyone else. We did the exact same training, we went through all the exams, all the certifications, and we are licensed practitioners. We got into this industry because we care about people and we want to make sure they're the healthiest versions of themselves. And we understand that being the healthiest version of yourself might not look like someone else's and that's okay. That we're here for you, we understand pain and loss due to a disability or an injury, and we're here to help make you better in whatever ways we can.
This has been so inspiring. Thank you so much for joining me today Erin!
