Adjusting the Canadian Healthcare System to Meet Newcomer Needs

Ginny Lane and Hassan Vatanparast
Additional contact information
Ginny Lane: Margaret Ritchie School of Family and Consumer Sciences, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID 83844, USA
Hassan Vatanparast: College of Pharmacy and Nutrition, School of Public Health, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK S7N 4Z2, Canada

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 7, 1-18

Abstract: Newcomers’ ability to access healthcare can be impacted by cultural, religious, linguistic, and health status differences. A variety of options are available to support the development of healthcare systems to equitably accommodate newcomers, including the use of basic English and other languages in public health information, engagement with immigrant communities to advise on program development, offering culturally competent health services, interpretation services, and through creating space to collaborate with traditional practitioners. This study employed in-depth interviews with newcomer families from the Healthy Immigrant Children Study that had been living in Regina or Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, for less than 5 years, as well as with healthcare providers and immigrant service providers to understand how to improve healthcare services. Analysis of participant quotes related to accessible healthcare services revealed five main themes: (1) responsive, accessible services, (2) increasing cultural competence, (3) targeted newcomer health services, (4) increasing awareness of health services, and (5) newcomer engagement in planning and partnerships. An accessible healthcare system should include primary healthcare sites developed in partnership with newcomer service organizations that offer comprehensive care in a conveniently accessible and culturally responsive manner, with embedded interpretation services. The Saskatchewan healthcare system needs to reflect on its capacity to meet newcomer healthcare needs and strategically respond to the healthcare needs of an increasingly diverse population.

Keywords: immigrant health; refugee health; healthcare access (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/7/3752/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/7/3752/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:7:p:3752-:d:776563

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().