Ep43: Chronic Pain in Canadian Indigenous Communities: Lived Experiences, Health Inequities, and Indigenous Perspectives​ with Dr. Jaris Swidrovich

In this episode, we talked about

Current healthcare gaps in managing pain in Indigenous populations + underlying causes of disparity in pain experience

Clinical pearls for treating chronic pain in Indigenous communities

Dr. Jaris Swidrovich, BSP, PharmD, PhD, AAHIVP, RPh (he/they) is an Assistant Professor, Tenure Stream, and Indigenous Engagement Lead in the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy at the University of Toronto. He is a queer, Two Spirit, Saulteaux and Ukrainian pharmacist from Yellow Quill First Nation (Treaty 4 territory, Saskatchewan). His mother was a 60s Scoop survivor and his grandmother and great-grandmother both survived Indian Residential Schools.

He received a Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy from the University of Saskatchewan (2010), a post-baccalaureate Doctor of Pharmacy from the University of Toronto (2013), and a PhD in education from the University of Saskatchewan (2024), which earned him the Governor General’s Gold Medal.

His primary areas of research and practice include Indigenous health, pain, HIV/AIDS, substance use disorders, and 2SLGBTQ+ health. As a Two Spirit, First Nations, and disabled person himself, Dr. Swidrovich brings a strong lens of equity, diversity, inclusion, intersectionality, and social justice to his research program.

Dr. Swidrovich is the Co-Scientific Director of the CIHR-funded Saskatchewan Network Environment for Indigenous Health Research (SK-NEIHR) called nātawihowin (“art of self-healing” in Cree), which is a First Nations Research Network that supports researchers, students, and First Nations health leaders and communities in Saskatchewan and beyond.

Dr. Swidrovich is the founder and chair of the Indigenous Pharmacy Professionals of Canada, and also sits on several other local, provincial, and national boards, including The 519, Pain Ontario, Pain Canada, the National Collaborating Centre for Indigenous Health, and the Institute Advisory Board for the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Institute of Indigenous Peoples’ Health.

Dr. Swidrovich is an active and engaged citizen of the several communities he belongs to and has been recognized with several awards and honours, including the Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Medal for service to the community and the National Patient Care Achievement Award from the Canadian Pharmacists Association.

Resources: https://linktr.ee/jaris.s

Social media

Instagram: @jarisoftheprairies and @prisscryption