Peer Advisory Circle
The Peer Advisory Circle (PAC) is a patient engagement process centred on improving safety, accountability & relevance. Once a month ~6 peers receive honoraria to provide feedback, ideas and processing of Womxn’s Night Clinic programming & clinic encounters more broadly. The participants are a mix of cisgender and transgender, queer & Two-Spirit, Indigenous, Black and settler folx, people who use, people living with disabilities, sex workers and single parents from 30 to 66.
This started as a quality improvement and accountability process funded by the Vulnerable Women’s Health Initiative and organized by the VCH DTES Womxn’s Night Coordinator. The Coordinator position was discontinued in September 2019, but staff from across the 3 VCH DTES Primary Care CHCs collaborated to receive a Knowledge Translation grant from VCHRI to continue this peer advisory work.
The PAC has since been financially supported by this grant and now engages in research activities as well in support of greater health equity access in our clinics.
The PAC peers take great pride in being peers, and patient empowerment supports greater health equity!