Patients who are or have been incarcerated face unique barriers to accessing safe, confidential and equitable health care — including reproductive and family planning services.
To help health-care providers bridge these gaps and deliver compassionate, stigma-free care, UBC CPD — in collaboration with Abbotsford family physician Dr. Beth Gallagher — has launched a new, free online learning module: Dignity and Access: Family Planning Care for People Experiencing Incarceration.
Developed in partnership with the UBC Contraception and Abortion Research Team (CART), the University of New Brunswick, and Wellness Within, this course brings real-world clinical insights and trauma-informed approaches directly to community care teams. It is tailored for a broad range of health-care professionals, including family physicians, nurse practitioners, nurses, allied health professionals, medical residents, and health professional students.
This course is eligible for up to 1.0 Mainpro+ certified credit or 1.0 MOC section 3 credit.
What you’ll learn
This one-hour, self-paced course offers practical guidance and tools to support bodily autonomy and equitable care for patients navigating or impacted by the correctional system:
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Understanding impacts: Explore how incarceration affects access to safe, respectful family planning and reproductive care.
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Effective communication & logistics: Learn best practices for managing informed consent, confidentiality, patient education and care delivery within or alongside the correctional framework.
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Advocacy in primary care: Recognize and leverage your role as a health-care professional to advocate for dignified, nonjudgmental care when justice-involved patients seek care in community settings.