From cultural awareness to safety in Canadian speech‑language pathology practice: A scoping review protocol.

Abstract

Despite growing attention to cultural safety and cultural responsiveness in health professions, no scoping review has focused exclusively on Canadian Speech‑Language Pathology (S-LP) practice across Indigenous peoples and other equity‑deserving groups. Existing reviews often combine S-LP with other rehabilitation professions, focus on either pediatric or adult populations but not both, or limit analysis to a single service‑delivery context. This scoping review protocol outlines an approach to mapping Canadian literature on culturally safe and culturally responsive S-LP practices across populations, contexts, and the lifespan, examining Indigenous peoples as distinct Nations and collective rightsholders rather than grouping them within other equity‑deserving populations. Guided by the PRISMA‑ScR framework, the review will systematically search peer‑reviewed and grey literature describing Canadian S-LP practice. A culturally informed continuum spanning cultural awareness, sensitivity, competence, responsiveness, and safety will guide data charting and synthesis. Terminology such as trauma‑informed will be included as a search concept due to its prevalence in the literature and will be interpreted using strength‑based and culturally safe lenses. The review will produce a descriptive map of how culturally safe and responsive practices are defined and implemented in Canadian S-LP literature, including strategies addressing Indigenous peoples and other equity‑deserving groups, and will identify key evidence gaps. Findings will inform S-LP education, training, and practice by clarifying how culturally safe and responsive approaches are currently described and where further research is needed within Canadian contexts.