Improving Healthcare Amidst Structural Vulnerabilities

Overview

Healthcare disparities aren’t just differences in outcomes - they’re the result of structural barriers that shape how people live, work, learn, and age. This Embodia course explores how poverty, racism, ableism, trauma, housing insecurity, isolation, and other social determinants deeply affect the health and healthcare journeys of structurally vulnerable populations.

Through a health equity and human rights lens, Dr. Sam Dosani’s keynote address highlights compassion-driven, innovative approaches to care for people often excluded by conventional healthcare models, including those experiencing homelessness, mental illness, substance use, and life-limiting conditions. You’ll gain insights into how structural vulnerabilities impact morbidity, mortality, and dignity - and what clinicians can do to reshape care so that equity isn’t aspirational but actionable.

This presentation was recorded at the Canadian Physiotherapy Association Congress in May 2022 and is available in both English and French.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Define structural vulnerability and its impact on health outcomes

• Identify how social determinants — such as housing insecurity, racism, and trauma — affect healthcare access and patient trajectories

• Understand the intersection of dignity, equity, and clinical care for structurally marginalized groups

• Reflect on practical, compassionate care models that overcome traditional system barriers

• Apply a human rights and health equity framework to clinical reasoning and decision-making

Audience

This course is designed for:

• Physiotherapists and rehabilitation clinicians

• Allied healthcare professionals

• Health system leaders and policy influencers

• Clinicians engaged in community-based and underserved population care

• Practitioners interested in global and social determinants of health

This course is available to all healthcare professionals and is suitable for clinicians seeking to deepen their understanding of systemic barriers to care.

Why This Course Matters

Traditional clinical training often focuses exclusively on biology and pathology - but a patient’s health is shaped by much more than physiology. Up to 60 % of what causes illness relates to social, economic, and environmental conditions that lie outside the clinic’s walls.

Clinicians who understand structural vulnerabilities are better equipped to:

• Recognize invisible barriers to care

• Build trust with historically underserved patients

• Adapt care plans that reflect real-world lived experiences

• Advocate for systemic changes that reduce inequity

This course challenges clinicians to rethink who we serve, how we serve, and why equity must be central to healthcare delivery.

About the Presenter

This course features a keynote address by Dr. Sam Dosani, a physician and health equity advocate whose work focuses on providing palliative and primary care in street and shelter-based settings for structurally vulnerable populations. Dr. Dosani is recognized for reframing healthcare delivery through compassion, social justice, and structural understanding.

His lived experiences and clinical leadership bring a deeply human perspective that enriches traditional medical and rehabilitation paradigms.