Keynote speaker at joint mental health research day says compassion in action has proven benefit
Compassion in mental health care – and in all health care – is “what separates good from really great” patient outcomes, Calgary-based researcher Shane Sinclair, PhD, told mental health researchers during a conference Oct. 30, 2024, in London.
Sinclair, who heads the Compassion Research Lab at the University of Calgary, was the invited keynote speaker at the Joint Mental Health Research and Innovation Day, attended by about 130 people.
The event was hosted by Lawson Research Institute, London Health Sciences Centre Research Institute and Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry.
The day also featured 17 poster presentations and 17 oral presentations on different aspects of mental health research. It’s one of the premier annual education-and-development events in mental health science regionally.
This year’s event showcased how compassion could transform health policy, partnerships, systems, care, research and service delivery.
Compassion, respect and excellence are core values of St. Joseph’s Health Care London.
Sinclair noted that the key role of compassion – responding to someone’s suffering with understanding and action – is evidence-based.
“We do patient-informed and patient-targeted research. And we’ve found compassion makes a difference in how people heal.”
-Shane Sinclair, PhD, compassion researcher
His lab examined the outcomes and satisfaction among patients at 14 emergency rooms across Alberta and found compassion to be the greatest predictor of quality care ratings.
“What separates good from really great comes down to compassion. These things matter,” Sinclair said.
“It improves their health and their quality of life. It reduces health-care costs, reduces adverse medical outcomes and helps build patients’ trust in the medical information and direction they receive,” he said.
