Veronica Proper
September 2025
Veronica
Proper
,
MPH, NP
Don't know
Nurse Practitioners' Association of Ontario
Toronto
,
Ontario
Canada
Having been a member of Veronica Proper's team and worked with her as a community partner, she is a creative-thinking problem-solver, a go-to in our community, and on pretty much everyone's speed dial for when they come across a complex case that requires tenacity and dignified care. She leads with compassion, supporting her team's professional development and providing incredible, low-barrier education to her interdisciplinary teams to ensure that everyone understands the medical aspects of treatment regimes, illnesses, etc.
While working together at the Thunder Bay District Health Unit, in their Street Nursing program, Veronica was our fearless leader when it came to advocating for program improvements in the best interest of the populations we served. As the "black sheep" program of the organization, Veronica often found herself in the office of upper management, advocating for better and supporting our team's care/treatment decisions.
Together we were able to implement statistical tracking systems to quantify the program's impact which attracted more permanent funding and community recognition.
Self-identifying, sourcing and engaging with resources across the country, Veronica was able to teach herself the process for safely and effectively treating patients living with HIV and other complex comorbidities. She was often met with criticism and finger wagging, but she pushed onward despite consistently being told HIV treatment and prophylaxis were outside of the scope of Public Health. After a few years of fighting this uphill battle, she took her expertise to another local nonprofit where she managed the most successful Aids Services Organization interdisciplinary clinical team in Ontario, with incredible success.
In many respects, she has become the unofficial Infectious Disease Specialist for Northwestern Ontario, sitting on many committees and presenting across the province to demystify HIV & HCV care for Nurse Practitioners supporting vulnerable populations.
Veronica's practice remains as low-barrier as possible, ensuring ample flexibility to meet her patients' needs. This often looks like unscheduled meetings, no penalization for missed appointments, physically going on outreach missions to literally meet her patients where they are at in the most literal sense of the phrase.
In Thunder Bay, Veronica has also garnered quite the reputation with our local hospitals and addiction treatment centres (including detox) as a practitioner who doesn't let vulnerable populations slip through the cracks, advocating at every step to ensure positive health outcomes are provided with dignity.
She often takes on vulnerable unrostered patients who are in need of follow-up as a way to reduce barriers to lifesaving care within a community that has a healthcare shortage.
She has also been part of the Vulnerable Populations Palliative Rounds in the city since the table's inception, and regularly advocates for creative solutions to complex situations involving unhoused individuals with Substance Use Disorders who require dignified end-of-life care. As a result of this table of community partners meeting consistently, organizations have been able to expand their program offerings to include low-barrier palliative options, despite still being limited.
Veronica Proper is the epitome of a health equity champion in one of the most underserved communities in Ontario, Thunder Bay. She has dedicated her career to making meaningful change for systemically marginalized populations, including but not limited to the intersections of: houselessness, substance use, complex mental health and trauma, HIV, HCV, TB and Indigeneity.
She continues to practice from a harm reduction model, ensuring that an individual is seen for more than just their presenting condition. It has been an ongoing exercise of learning, growing and sharing for Veronica. She has truly embraced harm reduction principles to ensure that she meets the social determinants of health needs for individuals who are engaged in substance use.
It is clear when you see her at work that she sees beyond just the presenting condition and makes meaningful connections beyond the scope of just healthcare. Sometimes this looks like referrals elsewhere and other times it is being someone's safe space to share, free of judgement and open to giving some of the best hugs you could imagine when consent is provided.
Over 20 unhoused Indigenous individuals living with HIV/AIDS have reached an undetectable status in the last 4 years after being rostered into Veronica's care. Over half of these individuals are now also housed, in receipt of ODSP, and working on addiction management as a result of being told by Veronica and her teams that HIV doesn't need to be a death sentence and that they can and deserve to live long, healthy lives.
While working together at the Thunder Bay District Health Unit, in their Street Nursing program, Veronica was our fearless leader when it came to advocating for program improvements in the best interest of the populations we served. As the "black sheep" program of the organization, Veronica often found herself in the office of upper management, advocating for better and supporting our team's care/treatment decisions.
Together we were able to implement statistical tracking systems to quantify the program's impact which attracted more permanent funding and community recognition.
Self-identifying, sourcing and engaging with resources across the country, Veronica was able to teach herself the process for safely and effectively treating patients living with HIV and other complex comorbidities. She was often met with criticism and finger wagging, but she pushed onward despite consistently being told HIV treatment and prophylaxis were outside of the scope of Public Health. After a few years of fighting this uphill battle, she took her expertise to another local nonprofit where she managed the most successful Aids Services Organization interdisciplinary clinical team in Ontario, with incredible success.
In many respects, she has become the unofficial Infectious Disease Specialist for Northwestern Ontario, sitting on many committees and presenting across the province to demystify HIV & HCV care for Nurse Practitioners supporting vulnerable populations.
Veronica's practice remains as low-barrier as possible, ensuring ample flexibility to meet her patients' needs. This often looks like unscheduled meetings, no penalization for missed appointments, physically going on outreach missions to literally meet her patients where they are at in the most literal sense of the phrase.
In Thunder Bay, Veronica has also garnered quite the reputation with our local hospitals and addiction treatment centres (including detox) as a practitioner who doesn't let vulnerable populations slip through the cracks, advocating at every step to ensure positive health outcomes are provided with dignity.
She often takes on vulnerable unrostered patients who are in need of follow-up as a way to reduce barriers to lifesaving care within a community that has a healthcare shortage.
She has also been part of the Vulnerable Populations Palliative Rounds in the city since the table's inception, and regularly advocates for creative solutions to complex situations involving unhoused individuals with Substance Use Disorders who require dignified end-of-life care. As a result of this table of community partners meeting consistently, organizations have been able to expand their program offerings to include low-barrier palliative options, despite still being limited.
Veronica Proper is the epitome of a health equity champion in one of the most underserved communities in Ontario, Thunder Bay. She has dedicated her career to making meaningful change for systemically marginalized populations, including but not limited to the intersections of: houselessness, substance use, complex mental health and trauma, HIV, HCV, TB and Indigeneity.
She continues to practice from a harm reduction model, ensuring that an individual is seen for more than just their presenting condition. It has been an ongoing exercise of learning, growing and sharing for Veronica. She has truly embraced harm reduction principles to ensure that she meets the social determinants of health needs for individuals who are engaged in substance use.
It is clear when you see her at work that she sees beyond just the presenting condition and makes meaningful connections beyond the scope of just healthcare. Sometimes this looks like referrals elsewhere and other times it is being someone's safe space to share, free of judgement and open to giving some of the best hugs you could imagine when consent is provided.
Over 20 unhoused Indigenous individuals living with HIV/AIDS have reached an undetectable status in the last 4 years after being rostered into Veronica's care. Over half of these individuals are now also housed, in receipt of ODSP, and working on addiction management as a result of being told by Veronica and her teams that HIV doesn't need to be a death sentence and that they can and deserve to live long, healthy lives.