Anamaria Richardson

BSc, BEd, MD, FRCPC

Investigator and General Pediatrician, BC Children's Hospital

My current research interests focus on exploring what it means to be a community provider and a researcher. As a general pediatrician, holding positions in both developmental pediatrics and psychiatry I see mostly children with complex behavioural phenotypes. As a community based pediatrician, work is based away from institutional supports and this has lead to my current research interest. Community providers have expertise grounded in daily micro-experiments but traditional research forums do not allow for our ‘naturalistic’ methodologies – this results in a major lack in ability to share this knowledge. As a community provider I seek to understand the interplay between colonialism and our academic institutions and how to decentralize knowledge. I am more than a “Knowledge User” as my understanding of etiology and pathology is grounded in what I learn from patient interactions, not by researchers.

The population of patients I work with includes those impacted by profound autism and associated behaviours – this includes a focus on Self-Injurious Behaviours (SIB). I am working towards establishing an understanding of SIB in terms of impact on individual, family and society. This patient population experiences extreme marginalization and massive health inequities by virtue of a behaviour. I am currently looking towards understanding SIB, by creating a shared definition, including what severity means (is 1 time eye gouging once per week more severe the 100 hits from hand to head a day?). I am hoping to develop a national registry and establish Canada as the go to in SIB.

My work is informed by the varied hats I wear – run a clinic in Vancouver (Groundwork Medical Clinic), do outreach to Bella Coola, Powell River and Fort St John as a community pediatrician, complete autism assessments as I can and with pilot projects, do local outreach through Social Pediatrics to Lu’ma Medical Clinic and an undocumented Latin migrant clinic. It is further shaped by being a white appearing Latina – all the privilege but none of the racism yet guided by what my mom experienced.