Ruth Elwood Martin
Current roles:
Health Professional – Family Physician; Director, Collaborating Centre for Prison Health and Education
Researcher – MPH; Lead research faculty for UBC family practice residency program
Clinical Professor – UBC Department of Family Practice
Description:
Dr. Martin has advocated for health and maintenance of mother-infant contact in BC prisons. She was involved in the making of documentary “Bonding through Bars”. She has also been a tireless advocate for “through-care” of prison inmates, where prison health is responsibility of Ministry of Health and the health authorities rather than Ministry of Justice and there is continuity of care when incarcerated women are released into the community. Dr. Martin is also involved with College of Family Physicians of Canada project, “Giving voice to the stories of family medicine.”
In addition, Dr, Martin supervises a Prison Health Advocacy Education elective for family practice residents and undergraduate medical students. Through this elective, participants experience the complexities of the correctional health system from ‘inside the gates’, and develop an understanding of the responses of prison health care practitioners, community organizations and individuals with incarceration experience to prison health determinants and inequities, in order to become more effective health advocates for prison health.
Dr. Martin’s other areas of interest are: Access and Resources to health care, Health education and advocacy, Maternal and Child health
Get involved – Dr. Martin is interested in connecting with students, practitioners, and members of the community to provide mentorship, opportunities in advocacy work, research, academic conversations, idea generation, and knowledge translation. She invites all the relationships that may come from the Social Medicine Network and is excited to see what develops.
Contact:
ruth.martin@familymed.ubc.ca
T: 604-822-2496