$750,000 for UdeM’s Clinique Mauve

Since it opened in 2020 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Université de Montréal's Clinique Mauve has provided intersectoral, community-based and integrated services to LGBTQIA+ members of migrant and racialized communities. As studies have shown, these people face structural barriers to accessing healthcare and often have urgent needs due to factors such as violence and trauma their experienced back home; demeaning, stigmatizing or oppressive experiences during their migratory journey; membership in an ethnic or religious minority; or simply their identity or sexual orientation.

Now the clinic is getting a boost, thanks to the Canadian government: nearly $750,000 from the federal ministry of health.

"The investment in Clinique Mauve illustrates the commitment to supporting the health and well-being of LGBTQIA+ migrant and racialized communities," said environment and climate-change minister Steven Guilbeault, speaking on behalf of federal health minister Mark Holland. "Improving integrated care and addressing the unique challenges these communities face fosters a more inclusive and equitable healthcare system for everyone in Canada."

From the outset, Clinique Mauve was conceived as an intersectoral collaborative effort. Its main partner is the community organization Agir Montréal, the only organization supporting LGBTQIA+ refugees and migrants in Montreal. The clinic's service model is based on the involvement of a wide range of health professionals-social workers, nurses, doctors, psychologists-and the support of peer navigators who are themselves LGBTQIA+ migrants and racialized people; they share the experiences of the clinic's users and are well equipped to guide them through the health system.

Over the years, Clinique Mauve has evolved into the first social and research laboratory promoting interdisciplinary and intersectoral collaboration in Quebec, and one of only a few in Canada. Under the direction of researcher Edward Lee, a professor in the School of Social Work, and Ahmed Hamila, a professor in the Department of Sociology, its research team focuses on developing and improving the anti-oppression, anti-racist and intersectional approaches that guide the interventions of the health and social-service professionals.

Clinique Mauve also develops and delivers training in its approaches and areas of expertise for health professionals and students to promote best practices in research and psychosocial and medical intervention.

"As a social laboratory that works with local stakeholders and the affected communities, Clinique Mauve is inspired by the approach known as implementation science," Lee explained. "The idea is to ensure that the research done here can be rapidly adopted and applied by professionals in their practice in order to improve their interventions and have a concrete, measurable impact on the communities concerned."

In 2023, Clinique Mauve also started offering internships to psychology and social-work students. Working under three supervisors, the students served approximately 30 people in individual or group settings. With the new funding, Lee and his colleagues want to expand the internship program to include students from other disciplines, such as nursing, medicine, pharmacy and public health.

"I am delighted that Clinique Mauve is receiving support from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research to pursue its mission," said UdeM's rector, Daniel Jutras. "Developed at UdeM, this project demonstrates the social engagement of our health research teams: a concrete, humanistic commitment that responds to real needs in the community. It is being carried out in close collaboration with health and social-service actors. This is an example of what we do best: education, research and community service rolled into one in order to fulfill our civic responsibility."

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