The roster of family doctors at the Bowen Island Community Health Centre continues to grow, most recently with the addition of Dr. Katie Longworth.
Katie began at the Health Centre at the start of September, becoming a permanent cast member following a pair of two-week stints at the new facility during the summer. Part of the reason she signed on was her positive experience working as a family physician on small islands in the past, including Salt Spring and Galiano.
“I find people who live on islands are more self sufficient, so when they come in there’s actually something wrong,” she explains, adding that she enjoys the problem-solving aspect of her job. “So it’s been really interesting medicine and just a really wonderful team. The facility and the team are fantastic… It’s a great group of people to work with.”
Longworth, who grew up on the North Shore, wasn’t always a family physician or even guaranteed to be in the medical profession at all. In fact she started her post-secondary career in architecture and later gave serious consideration to designing exhibits for museums. Longworth had always enjoyed science though, and when she was accepted into medical school she knew it was a path she wanted to follow.
Following medical school at UBC, where Katie earned her medical degree and a Masters in Public Health, she spent time in community medicine, as a family physician, and even in the maternity ward in Victoria. For the past decade her focus has been on palliative care working with patients in Vancouver and Burnaby. While death is often seen as a taboo topic, particularly the prospect of your own, Longworth finds it’s a matter people are actually eager to discuss.
“I think so many people really want to talk about death and dying, and don’t get the opportunity. I feel I provided a space for that to happen, and was able to reflect back to people and be able to host conversations,” she says.
“If there’s a life limiting condition where we know we can’t fix it, that doesn’t mean we can’t do anything. We can still do a lot. A lot of it is actually just talking about it and making sure we’re upholding people’s values and goals.”
When Longworth decided to close her extended chapter in palliative care she wasn’t sure what area she’d focus on, or if her next steps would be in medicine at all. But in the end it was a past calling – family medicine – which drew her in. A small island setting was nothing new to Katie, but the local Health Centre was – to her and everyone else who works there. The family doctor says she’s eager to be involved with establishing the facility as a trusted fixture in the community.
“Bowen is really neat in terms of being quite close to a tertiary care centre (Lions Gate Hospital) and yet, obviously needing care for people who are here. It’s really exciting to be part of figuring out how this model and how this clinic works to best serve the residents of this island,” says Longworth.
A major focus for Longworth is the importance of preventative medicine, and how vital it is to take care of yourself before even stepping foot in a doctor’s office. “I’ve reminded a lot of people that our best ways to have good health are not medications as much as they are trying to engage in increased physical activity where possible… However they’re not always choices for people, and so a lot of it is around our built and social environments and ways that we can try to influence those to try to make the healthy choice the easy choice,” she says.
Longworth provides her own example of whenever she takes a ferry ride it’s an opportunity to fit in a brief workout. You may see her walking up and down the stairs at the terminal or during the crossing, which she says is part of her effort to normalize physical activity in public spaces. When she’s on Bowen, some of Katie’s favourite activities include running the local trails and climbing up Island mountains and hills.
Reflecting on her career, Longworth says patient interactions are what fuel her love for the role. “It’s nice to feel like you’re providing something that might be hard for people to get otherwise. It’s pretty amazing that people trust me with their health concerns, they walk in and meet me and can talk about really real things right off the bat… This is definitely a profession where honesty and empathy are valued, and integrity. And I feel like I would struggle to work in a profession or an industry that didn’t have those as primary values.”
“I also really enjoy people’s stories and where they’re coming from. It’s really valuable information, because it’s no use for me to just tell them medically what I think they should do. It’s really a transaction about what will work for them, and what’s realistic for their lives,” she says.
Longworth will be speaking at the Bowen Island Public Library on Wednesday, October 30 at 5 pm about various medical topics, and invites community members to attend the session.
