Jake Mossop is an RN who works as an after-hours manager at CAMH in Toronto and a HOOPP member. He also has an active social media presence focused on promoting sexual and mental health. He identifies as a gay, cisgender man. The Out and Proud ERG sat down with Jake (virtually) to hear about his experiences as a queer person of colour, working in healthcare during COVID, and his advice to future generations of queer healthcare workers.
Question: Tell us about how you got into nursing and your journey to working at CAMH.
I was studying cell biology and genetics at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in the early 2000’s. At the same time, I started caring for my elderly grandmother and it was through that experience that I realized I didn’t want to be looking in a microscope at worms for the rest of my life. So, I went into the advanced nursing program at UBC. After working at hospitals in Vancouver and Toronto, I went to Kenya to volunteer at a rural community clinic, doing mostly family medicine – including working with new mothers and people with HIV. When I came back, I wanted to work with marginalized, inner-city communities. I worked for 5 years at Sherbourne Health Centre’s Homeless Healthcare Team and did my Masters in Nursing at U of T focusing on healthcare management before joining the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) in 2017.
Question: How has your experience been working during COVID-19? How is it affecting you and your fellow nurses and how are you coping with it?
At first, there was a lot of fear on the frontline due to conflicting information in the news and social media. It was challenging for organizations to keep up and implement policies. While I’ve seen a lot of burnout with people constantly working in a stressful state, I’ve also seen a lot of resilience. Despite things constantly changing, frontline workers continue to bravely step up to the plate to help make Ontario the leader in healthcare.
CAMH has seen the socioeconomic effects of COVID-19 with many individuals suffering from isolation and unemployment, which has led to increased emergency room volumes. We’ve also had to reprioritize resources and redistribute nursing staff to more critical areas, which has caused disruption in regular services for certain patient populations during this prolonged pandemic
Personally, I try to find things I enjoy such as physical activity or virtual game nights with my friends or family.
Question: What are some important health issues for you? Have you been able to merge your work in nursing with your work in media?
I’m passionate about sexual health and education, working with marginalized communities and mental health. For me, growing up, queer sexual health was just not part of the conversation. I worked on an MTV Canada panel show called 1 Girl, 5 Gays where I talked about sexual health through the lens of a healthcare professional, and it really resonated with the audience. I felt like there needed to be a voice out there to talk about this topic.
Question: What has your experience been as a gay man and person of colour working in healthcare?
I’ve been fortunate to work at inner-city healthcare organizations that are very diverse and have a high representation of queer employees. There can be a stigma about male nurses being gay, but that doesn’t bother me because that’s who I am. I am also biracial, so race has always been an important issue for me. Frontline healthcare workers are very diverse, however it's important to continue the work from a leadership perspective. At CAMH, we have a training initiative called Fair and Just that looks at our internal biases in treating racialized people in the corrections system.
Question: What advice would you offer to young queer or BIPOC folks wanting to enter the nursing profession?
We need you! Healthcare is such a beautiful place to be who you are. We need people to represent the communities they are serving. For the most part, it’s an accepting profession – you’re needed, you’re wanted, so come! Representation matters, especially in a field like healthcare because the communities we serve want help and advice from people with the same life experiences.
Question: Why do you think it is important for an organization like HOOPP to voice its support for its LGBTQ2S+ members and employees?
Seeing the way older generations of the LGBTQ2S+ community, who may have been fearful of entering certain careers because they were gay, and who may not have a support network of family, I think it’s really important. HOOPP was established to provide all its members with financial security in retirement. Our community needs all the support we can get, especially since historically, we haven’t always been shown it.
Question: What is one of your favorite Pride memories?
My favourite Pride memories are of being in the parade, it’s always so much fun. I always bring a friend or two or a family member and we always have the best time. Seeing all the people, feeling the energy and the music, makes the celebration of our community come to life. It reminds you why it’s so important to celebrate our community and how far we’ve come.
My message to HOOPP employees and my fellow healthcare workers is this: Take the opportunity of the world slowing down and seize the month of June to enjoy and celebrate how far our community has come. Just because we’re not all celebrating together, doesn’t mean we can’t take the time to virtually celebrate Pride 2021.
Question: What does it mean to you to have a HOOPP pension?
I think this is the most important part of the interview. I’ve always had some degree of financial literacy, but for about half my career I wasn’t contributing to a pension. Now I realize how important my HOOPP pension is for my future. To any young healthcare worker starting out, I would say it’s really important to contribute to the pension if you have the option.
Learn more about how we’re celebrating Pride 2021 at HOOPP and our initiatives supporting the LGBTQ2S+ community.