Developing a common language
ACSLPA recognizes the existence of systemic racism and discrimination in Alberta, across Canada, and around the world. This is a time for reflection, learning and improvement.
In addition to raising the awareness of staff and regulated members, the College is focusing on reviewing our systems, policies and processes, including our professional standards of practice.
ACSLPA’s Anti-Racism and Anti-Discrimination Advisory (ARADA) Committee has developed a list of definitions to support our continued discussion and understanding in this area.
Watch our social media posts for bi-weekly definitions.
Cultural humility ...
A process of self-reflection to understand personal and systemic biases, to develop and maintain respectful processes and relationships based on mutual trust. Cultural humility involves humbly acknowledging oneself as a learner when it comes to understanding another’s experience.
Cultural safety ...
The provision of quality care for individuals of ethnicities outside of the dominant culture/mainstream culture; and care provided within the cultural norms of the client, so that all people feel respected and safe when they interact with the health care system. Culturally safe health services are free of racism and discrimination and occur when clients are supported to draw strengths from their identity, culture, and community.
Racism ...
Prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against a person or people based on their membership in a particular racial or ethnic group, typically one that is a minority or marginalized, based on beliefs about one’s own racial superiority, or the belief that race reflects inherent differences in attributes and capabilities.
Anti-racism ...
Actively working against racism; making a commitment to resisting unjust laws, policies, procedures, and attitudes; examining systemic power structures that create and maintain racism; exploring and implementing mechanisms to counteract racism.
Inequity ...
Systemic differences in health status of different population groups, which have significant social and economic costs both to individuals
and societies.
Equity ...
The absence of unfair, avoidable, or remediable differences among groups of people, whether those groups are defined socially, economically, demographically, or geographically or by other dimensions of inequality (e.g., sex, gender, ethnicity, disability, or sexual orientation).
Cultural Harm ...
Any action which diminishes, demeans, or disempowers the cultural identity and well-being of an individual.
Assimilation ...
The process of denying and erasing the language, culture, customs, and material possessions of a group of people, forcing them to adopt the systems of the dominant group of the society in which they reside.
Stereotype ...
An exaggerated belief, image or distorted truth about a person or group; allows for little or no individual differences or social variation.
Racialization ...
The process by which socially constructed racial categories are assigned and applied in ways that mark non-white individuals as different and unequal and that lead to social, economic, and political impacts.
Dominant Culture ...
The group of people in society who hold the most power and are often (but not always) in the majority.
Power ...
The capacity or ability to direct or influence the behavior of others or the course of events.
Culture ...
Integrated pattern of human behavior that includes thoughts, communications, actions, customs, beliefs, values, and institutions of a racial, ethnic, religious, or social group.
Eurocentric ...
Being centered on belief systems, languages, cultures, and ways of thinking that have their historical origins in Europe.
Social determinant of health ...
The conditions in which people are born, grow, work, live, and age, and the wider set of forces and systems shaping the conditions of daily life. These forces and systems include economic policies and systems, development agendas, social norms, social policies, and political systems.
Biopsychosocial model ...
An interdisciplinary model that examines the interconnections between biological, psychological, and social factors on the health and well-being of individuals.
Experiential knowledge ...
Knowledge gained through differential history and experience with oppression in society and the ability of a group to articulate this experience in ways unique to that group.
Culturally and linguistically diverse ...
Individuals who are not of the dominant language and cultural background of the society in which they reside, and/or those who have multiple cultural and linguistic influences.
Discrimination ...
Denying members of a particular social group access to comparable and equitable goods, resources, and services.
Cultural competence ...
The process in which clinicians continuously strive to achieve the ability and availability to effectively work within the cultural context of their client(s).
Equity seeking ...
Communities that face significant collective challenges in participating in society. This marginalization can be created by attitudinal, historic, social, and environmental barriers based on age, ethnicity, disability, economic status, gender, nationality, race, sexual orientation, transgender status, etc.
Underrepresented racial, ethnic, and linguistic minority (URELM) ...
A group or community that makes up a smaller percentage than a larger subgroup with a population. In Alberta, this larger population subgroup is comprised of people who identify with the dominant culture, i.e., white, English speaking, middle class, cisgender, and Christian. This definition also encompasses groups or individuals whose representation within the SLP and Audiology professions is less than their proportion in the public.