Description

To honor their mother and to support the advancement of integrative medicine, the children of Shirley Bergman have created the Shirley Anne Bergman Award in Integrative Medicine to be awarded annually to a third or fourth year medical student that has shown an interest in, or aptitude for, the area of integrative medicine.

The award will enable the recipient to attend a scientific conference on integrative medicine, and will cover the cost of travel, accommodation, and conference fees, up to $2,000.

Background

Shirley Anne Bergman was a Saskatchewan woman, whom although she had no formal training, was a naturally gifted health care provider. She had a great respect for conventional medicine and inspired that interest in her children, three of whom pursued careers in healthcare, and two of whom are graduates of The University of Saskatchewan, College of Medicine.

Shirley's interest in healthcare extended beyond the boundaries of conventional medicine and into the realm of complementary and alternative therapies. She had an enquiring mind and sought to make sense of the growing body of knowledge in these areas, motivated in part by her search for additional treatment options to help her husband relieve his severe symptoms associated with rheumatoid arthritis. Shirley worked hard to search out the most safe and effective healthcare treatments from all sources.

She respected the work of complementary health practitioners, but never accepted their practices uncritically at face value. In this way Shirley embodied the concept of Integrative Medicine long before the term was ever coined:  

Integrative Medicine is healing-oriented medicine that takes account of the whole person (body, mind, and spirit) including all aspects of lifestyle. It emphasizes the therapeutic relationship and makes use of all appropriate therapies, both conventional and alternative.

To honor their mother and to support the advancement of Integrative Medicine, the children of Shirley Bergman have created the Shirley Anne Bergman award in Integrative Medicine, to be awarded annually to a third or fourth year medical student that has shown an interest in, or aptitude for, the area of Integrative medicine. This award is a travel bursary with a value of up to $2,000, to cover the cost of travel and conference fees for a national or international conference in Integrative Medicine.