How this team is changing health care for African Nova Scotian women

After years of feeling shunned by the health-care system, Kate McKinnon says she’s finally been able to access the treatment she deserves.

For almost a year, she has been a patient of the Nova Scotia Sisterhood, a team of all Black female health care providers dedicated to offering culturally sensitive care.

The program serves African Nova Scotian and Black women and gender-diverse individuals aged 19 and older – with or without a family doctor – in the province’s central health region.

“It’s more than just a doctor’s office,” MacKinnon said in a recent interview with CBC News. “I feel validated and seen for probably the first time in my life.”

Sisterhood officially launches in 2023, Inspired by the success of his counterpart, Nova Scotia Brotherhood. It is supported by the research and advocacy of Health Association of African Canadians.

In July, the team moved to its new clinic on Wyse Road in Dartmouth, where staff perform a wide range of services from Pap tests, blood pressure checks and chronic disease management to clinical medicine and nutrition counseling.

Delivered through the Nova Scotia Health Authority, the program aims to break down the systemic barriers black women often face when navigating the health care system, according to Natalie Johnson, the program’s team lead and registered dietitian.

“They’re able to come here and knock down some of those walls, (they’re) able to talk openly about things that they might not be able to open up about with a health care provider who doesn’t get their experience as a Black woman,” she said.

McKinnon said she is working on recovering physically and psychologically from experiences of racism and discrimination throughout her life. But within the traditional health care system, she said physicians rarely acknowledged how those experiences affected their overall health.

Tycora Brinton, the family practice nurse who handles all new patients, says the health care system is “stretched to its limits,” leaving many family doctors only 15 minutes to see each patient.

At Sisterhood, initial appointments last an hour, with a 30-minute follow-up.

“You have time to relax and talk about those things and not feel like you have to just come in, say your stuff and walk out,” he said. “We are here to listen to you.”

routine cancer screening

Nurse practitioner Kiersten Boyle said she has more to offer Over 1,000 office visits since May Many of her patients are behind on their routine checkups, such as Pap tests for cervical cancer.

“Some of them haven’t seen providers in 10 or 15 years, so they have a long list of things we need to address,” Boyle said.

This is consistent with research that shows Black women in Nova Scotia are less likely to be tested for breast and cervical cancer.

“A lot of them have a really negative experience going to (the emergency room) or watching their loved one die in the hospital, and that makes them not want to go there and get the care they need. They put things on the back burner,” Boyle said.

meeting people where they are

Hesitancy to seek care is a major reason Sisterhood also brings direct care to some African Nova Scotian communities.

On Wednesdays, a family doctor rotates between satellite clinics in Halifax, Dartmouth, Upper Hammonds Plains, East Preston and North Preston.

Johnson said the outreach also helps patients who have transportation or access challenges.

A spokesperson for the health authority could not say whether there were plans to expand the Sisterhood’s mandate to more communities.

But MacKinnon said she would like to see the group working across the province — especially in more rural communities — so that all black women in Nova Scotia can get the same care they have benefited from.

For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians – from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community – check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project that Black Canadians can be proud of. You can read more stories here,

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