The Medicine Chest
An examination of the barriers facing Indigenous people within the healthcare system from the perspective of an empathetic settler physician
After leaving her medical practice in Pennsylvania in 2011, Jarol Boan returned to her childhood home in Saskatchewan, Canada to practise medicine. There she found a healthcare system struggling with preventable chronic diseases and institutional racism. Shocked by the high rate of preventable diseases in her patients, Boan realized that a paternalistic deficit model does not support Indigenous communities. Through working to provide medical services in Indigenous communities and learning first-hand from her Indigenous patients, Boan embarked on a road to enlightenment and reconciliation.
In The Medicine Chest, Boan exposes the healthcare disparities in a country that prides itself on an equitable healthcare system and examines the devastating effects of diabetes, the myth of “the drunken Indian,” the inner workings of hospitals, Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, epidemics on reserves, and residential school trauma. Exploring the intersectionality of common diseases and social determinants of health gained from her experience of caring for Indigenous patients, Boan weaves historical data, comments on health policy, and jurisdictional gaps into the narrative while investigating how Canada’s healthcare system is failing those most in need.
Dr Jarol Boan at the Toronto launch of The Medicine Chest, April 2024.
Dr Jarol Boan with members of the Canadian Doctors for Medicare, April 2024
Royalties from the sale of this book will be sent to the College of Medicine at the University of Saskatchewan for Indigenous Learning.
In The Medicine Chest, Boan exposes the healthcare disparities in a country that prides itself on an equitable healthcare. Boan weaves her professional experiences, historical data, comments on health policy, and jurisdictional gaps into the narrative while investigating how Canada’s healthcare system is failing those most in need.
Launching The Medicine Chest
Reviewing The Medicine Chest:
“Boan’s desire to contribute to reconciliation and be sensitive to the traumatic effect of state care—especially the impact of Indian Residential Schools—is useful reflection of the efforts by many well-intentioned Canadians who are confused and uncertain what they can do.”
The Winnipeg Free Press
“Learning from her Indigenous patients, she began to understand why mainstream approaches to medicine were so often failing them — and what she as a physician should be doing differently.”
The Tyee, British Columbia
“The Medicine Chest demonstrates how the Canadian health care system has so often failed First Nations and Métis communities. Boan weaves together historical data with her experiences as a doctor in Saskatchewan.”
The Literary Journal of Canada
Op-Ed in the Regina Leader Post :
Doctors' moral injury shows need to change Sask. health care
"Innovations prompted by the pandemic improved patient care, but the Moe government put an end those with the living with COVID order."
By Dr. Jarol Boan, Published in the Regina Leader Post on June 08, 2022