By Neil Armstrong
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| Photo contributed Dr. Sharon Smile, a clinical study investigator at Bloorview Research Institute and a developmental paediatrician at the Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital in Toronto |
Dr. Sharon Smile, a clinical study investigator at the Bloorview Research Institute and a developmental paediatrician at the Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital in Toronto, is using her experience living and working in Canada as an opportunity to show off what Black excellence looks like.
This is what she tries to live by daily.
It’s also the advice the Jamaican physician gives to students in the Summer Mentorship Program of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto. The program gives high school students of Indigenous or African ancestry a chance to explore health sciences at the university over four weeks in July.
One asked her what it was like being a Black physician and she told her that the reason she (the student) was chosen to be a Black woman was to represent what Black excellence looks like.
That has been the guiding principle of Dr. Smile, who recently tookon a new role as equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) champion for the division of developmental paediatrics at the University of Toronto's Department of Paediatrics.
In her EDI role, she is supporting allyship and awareness, especially around anti-Black racism and antiracism, to move “towards a common humanity where we don’t have to be talking about race, sexuality, culture as a definer for a person but that opportunities are going to be equally around for everyone because that’s the only way that we’re going to make the world a better place.”
The recent protests in Canada, the United States and elsewhere since the killing of George Floyd by a white Minneapolis police officer on May 25have provided the leadership team with “a platform to speak openly about our journey and our voices are being heard.”
“And then what we should do is pivot on that to make sure that we make substantial changes within institutions, structures, organizations, within our home, within our justice system and continue that movement,” she says.
Regardingthe impact of racism on a child’s development and mental health, Dr. Smile says this happensthroughout their lifespan, from childhood through adolescence to adulthood.
As someone who grew up in Jamaica, she says this type of racism in Canada is new to her because while there is colourism and classism in her homeland, the type of racism that is in the western world was foreign to her.
She notes that in Canada Black kids are 40% more likely to be investigated for child welfare services and, in 2011, the Toronto District School Board identified that Black kids were two times more likely to drop out of school as compared to their white counterparts.
“What drives that is that Black kids feel excluded or targeted or they are stressed so we see a lot of Black kids in the child welfare services as well as they are over-represented in the corrective institutions as well. This significantly impacts their mental health.”
Dr. Smile says there is the chronic racial challenge that kids experience from childhood into adolescence and it may not be labeled in childhood as racism “because it is so embedded in our day-to-day lived experience that we may not separate it from other experiences.”
This affects the self-esteem of children and they grapple with anxiety, depression and the stigma around mental health illness.
The paediatrician notes that racism also has an impact on access to healthcare and that there are health inequities that exist in the system concerning kids or adults who are identified as Black, Indigenous or people of colour.
She says as people move into adulthood there are issues of income and employment, and data out of Montreal in 2010 showed that there was an unemployment rate of 13.4% for Black individuals with a graduate degree while non-Black high school dropouts had an unemployment rate of 4%.
Regarding the role that parents can play in helping their children understand racism, she recommends that they start with themselves first.
“You have to equip yourself as an adult with the knowledge, the language, and the understanding of history to then impart that knowledge to your child.”
A parent should understand what racism is and if it is not part of their lived experience they should read about it as libraries are free, she advises.
They should reflect on their own biases and how they are portrayed internally and externally.
Dr. Smile also believes that parents should use “teachable moments” to discuss racism with children. It could be while watching TV or in the supermarket where the child may have witnessed an incident of obvious bias.
“Depending on their age and their understanding, you could have a discussion about what did you see, what did you understand from that and try to start that discussion.”
For younger kids, she recommends using books about racism, differences, and acceptance as a platform to have those discussions.
She urges parents to know what their children are being taught in school and to review it.
“It starts with you and having an open environment for your child to ask these questions and explore it with them.”
The paediatrician says what she is seeing in the streets and on the news pushed her to go back and think about Jamaica’s national hero, Marcus Mosiah Garvey, and to read more about him, especially his statement “Emancipate yourself from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our mind.” – which Bob Marley included in a song.
Dr. Smile attended St. Richard’s Primary School in Kingston and then The Queen’s School before going to Wolmer’s Girls High School for sixth form.
She graduated from the University of the West Indies in Kingston, Jamaica in 1997 and completed her Doctor of Medicine in Paediatrics in 2004.
In 2009 she completed her Fellowship training in developmental paediatrics at Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital/University of Toronto.
After completing her Master’s degree in Clinical Epidemiology at the University of Toronto in 2011 she returned to Jamaica but came back to Canada in 2012 because there was an opportunity to work primarily with kids and youth diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder in a full-time capacity.
In her paediatric journey at the UWI they participated as residents in the Child Development Clinic and that was where Dr. Smile saw many kids who had difficulty with their development speaking and presented with some atypical behaviours identified as being Autism Spectrum Disorder.
“I was really intrigued by how these kids were able to navigate their environment and I wanted to learn more about it and bring back that knowledge to make sure that they are successful as anyone else so I think I was groomed from back home by great clinicians like Dr. Matthias Antoine who is now deceased and Dr. Millard who is a cardiologist.”
She wanted to emulate the type of professionalism that they brought to the table within her specialty of developmental paediatrics.
Her research is primarily in feeding and eating disorders associated with Autism Spectrum Disorder and she looks at interventions for that and tries to understand the path and physiology of dysfunctional feeding or feeding disturbances and coming up with interventions that could be practical and cross borders.
“One of the challenges for kids with Autism Spectrum Disorder is a lot of some specialty interventions or care is needed and when we look at broader societies like our developing countries, like Jamaica, the Caribbean, we don’t have all that expertise but that doesn’t mean that we can’t create interventions that could be adopted in any manner in anywhere in the world to support our kids.”
Her role is to look at the more universal type of intervention that may not need that degree of specialty but still offer the same amount of care and quality of care.
Whenever Dr. Smile travels to Jamaica she does presentations – the most recent was in January where she was working with the paediatric team at Cornwall Regional Hospital -- and she was the keynote speaker at their paediatric conference talking about Autism Spectrum Disorder andAttention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).
She is so passionate about teaching the next generation that she spent some time with the paediatric residents at Cornwall Regional Hospital as well as the University Hospital of the West Indies.
In 2017, Dr. Smile was appointed president of the Medical Staff Association at Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital for a 2-year term.
Describing her life here as being a reflective time, Dr. Smile says it allows her to recognize how privileged she is to be a Jamaican and how privileged her life was in Jamaica where she grew up with parents who love her, and in a very supportive network with extended family members, which is not necessarily something that is seen in a North American country.
Recognizing the privilege of her education journey in Jamaica and “the value of our national heroes,” she says, “I think we don’t value them enough for how much of that is taught in our schools.”
“I recognize in a western country people know more about Bob Marley and Marcus Garvey than our local Jamaicans. I’m thankful to the people of Jamaica and Jamaica as a whole for nurturing me and supporting me on my journey. And I’m thankful to Canada for giving me the opportunity to do the things that I want to do – which is work with kids and families diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder to find solutions so that they’re able to function in their day-to-day and become the best persons they can be.”
While thankful to both nations she admits that she doesn’t like the cold weather here.
She seizes whatever opportunities come her way to fly back home to the warmth, familiarity, and cuisine of Jamaica.
