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This blog is re-posted from October 2021.
Dr. Annalee Coakley is the Co-Chair of the N4 Advisory Committee, the Physician Lead of the Mosaic Refugee Health Clinic, and the Medical Director of the Calgary Refugee Health Program in Calgary, Alberta. Dr. Coakley initially became interested in medicine by reading The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance by Laurie Garrett, which piqued her interest in tropical diseases. After graduating as a family physician, she further pursued this interest by attaining a Diploma of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
In seeking to maintain her tropical medicine skills while back in Canada, she found herself working with refugees at the Mosaic Refugee Health Clinic, reflecting, “I went for the infectious disease, but I stayed because of the people.” Dr. Coakley, inspired by the resiliency of her refugee patients, had an immediate affinity to work with and wholeheartedly support them.
The 2012 federal cuts to refugee aid resulted in the loss of medical services for many of Dr. Coakley’s patients. She identifies these cuts as the catalyst that set her down a different path, saying it “launched me down this road of advocacy, and I'm not a natural advocate...I don’t like putting myself out there, I don’t like fighting, but back then I just decided if not me, who? I am the Medical Director of this program, and so I have to stand up and fight for my patients.” Dr. Coakley worked with other refugee health providers across Canada to form a coalition, which then collaborated with the Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers to build a case against the cuts to refugee health. The group took the government to court and won, resulting in the cuts being partially reversed. Simultaneously, a new Liberal government came to power, and the public support for the Syrian refugee resettlement resulted in a full reversal of the cuts.
In 2015, Dr. Coakley participated in a separate coalition of newcomer-serving intersectoral partners to support the resettlement of Syrian refugees to Calgary, and the subsequent Yazidi resettlement to the city. This coalition was comprised of immigrant and social service organizations, the City of Calgary, law enforcement, and school boards, and more recently has worked together to manage the impact of COVID-19 on newcomers. Like other vulnerable populations, newcomers have been disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, something that Dr. Coakley sees amongst her patients daily. Many newcomers are essential workers, often employed by grocery stores and meat-packing plants, which have proven to be environments with high COVID-19 transmission rates.
In order to address the outbreaks at meat-packing plants, Dr. Coakley worked with AHS Public Health, Primary Care Networks and immigrant serving agencies to address the needs of the impacted workers while in isolation and quarantine. Subsequently, Dr. Coakley became active in advocating for and providing on-site vaccination clinics at the meat-packing plants themselves.
Dr. Coakley identifies the complex Canadian healthcare system as a barrier to health equity, both among newcomers as well as the Canadian population at large. She also points to racism as another barrier, something that her patients and many providers of colour face on a regular basis, pointing to the lack of diversity among healthcare providers (especially on the leadership level) as a continued challenge.
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