Culturally Competent (Appropriate) Health and Long-Term Care Services for Older Immigrants in a Small Urban Center Of Newfoundland (original) (raw)
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There is a paucity of research exploring the needs of older immigrants in Canada in general and specifically of those who have settled in smaller urban centers in the Eastern region of Canada. Recently Newfoundland implemented an immigration strategy to attract more immigrants to address the skilled labor shortages, to increase the population that has been shrinking due to outmigration and to replenish a rapidly aging cohort. Most immigrants to Canada settled in larger cities. Out of the small number of immigrants in Newfoundland, many left the province shortly after arrival due to a lack of jobs and other reasons, such as lack of culturally appropriate health and long-term care (LTC) services. This qualitative pilot study explores the potential gaps in culturally appropriate health and LTC services for older immigrants. The study uses a qualitative method approach. The convenience sample consisted of 26 individuals over 50 years of age who were caregivers, care receivers and older ...
Serving the Health Care and Leisure Needs of Ethnic Aged in Canada: Implications and Concerns
Physical Culture and Sport. Studies and Research, 2018
Health care and leisure services, although different, are similar from the perspective that both focus on enhancing quality of life by improving health and wellbeing. Although both of these services are vitally important, some groups such as aged immigrants face a number of barriers that may limit their access to these services. This paper examines and discusses two related areas of the service sector – health care and leisure – and the growing concern to address the needs of Canada’s aging population, specifically, aged immigrants. The paper concludes with the following five suggestions for health care and leisure service providers to alleviate barriers faced by Canada’s ethnic aged: 1) Recognize that health care and leisure are closely related, 2) Understand the changing nature of society including trends in immigration, 3) Get to know society’s diversity of aged immigrants, 4) Evaluate current services provided, and 5) Establish future goals and directions.
Taking care of chronic disease: realizing approaches for Canada's aging ethnic population was a workshop held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada in February 2011. The purpose of this workshop was to begin to address an existing evidence gap on approaches to self management support that meet the needs of immigrant older adults with chronic conditions. This gap was identified by participants in a multi-stakeholder forum and subsequent community consultations with Mandarin- and Punjabi-speaking older adults organized by the Immigrant Older Adults: Care, Accessibility, Research and Empowerment (ICARE) team. In response, we conducted an environmental scan that resulted in an annotated bibliography. From this exercise we concluded that: (1) Literature on self-management supports for ethnocultural minority older adults is sparse and varied; (2) Evaluations of U.K. and Australian programs revealed that they predominately appeal to “white middle-class people with long-term conditions...
JMIR Aging, 2018
Background: Older adults are the fastest growing age group worldwide and in Canada. Immigrants represent a significant proportion of older Canadians. Social isolation is common among older adults and has many negative consequences, including limited community and civic participation, increased income insecurity, and increased risk of elder abuse. Additional factors such as the social, cultural, and economic changes that accompany migration, language differences, racism, and ageism heighten older immigrants' vulnerability to social isolation. Objective: This mixed-methods sequential (qualitative-quantitative) study seeks to clarify older immigrants' social needs, networks, and support and how these shape their capacity, resilience, and independence in aging well in Ontario. Methods: Theoretically, our research is informed by an intersectionality perspective and an ecological model, allowing us to critically examine the complexity surrounding multiple dimensions of social identity (eg, gender and immigration) and how these interrelate at the micro (individual and family), meso (community), and macro (societal) levels in diverse geographical settings. Methodologically, the project is guided by a collaborative, community-based, mixed-methods approach to engaging a range of stakeholders in Toronto, Ottawa, Waterloo, and London in generating knowledge. The 4 settings were strategically chosen for their diversity in the level of urbanization, size of community, and the number of immigrants and immigrant-serving organizations. Interviews will be conducted in Arabic, Mandarin, and Spanish with older women, older men, family members, community leaders, and service providers. The study protocol has received ethics approval from the 4 participating universities. Results: Quantitative and qualitative data collection is ongoing. The project is funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Council of Canada. Conclusions: Comparative analyses of qualitative and quantitative data within and across sites will provide insights about common and unique factors that contribute to the well-being of older immigrants in different regions of Ontario. Given the comprehensive approach to incorporating local knowledge and expert contributions from multilevel stakeholders, the empirical and theoretical findings will be highly relevant to our community partners, help facilitate practice change, and improve the well-being of older men and women in immigrant communities.
Connecting older Chinese people to mainstream services in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
China Journal of Social Work, 2018
This article presents the issues and challenges facing older Chinese immigrants in accessing mainstream services in Edmonton, Alberta, in Western Canada. A partnership was developed to advance knowledge in better understanding the provision of social services to this population. The study aimed to develop a comprehensive understanding of the needs of older Chinese immigrants and possible systems that would benefit from collaborative action and strategic engagement. Qualitative research was used to understand these issues with service providers in mainstream and immigrant-serving organisations and with Older Chinese from their perspectives. The awareness and access to mainstream services and information, perceptions of services, system improvements and use of social media are discussed. The article concludes with suggestions on how mainstream organisations can address diversity to better meet the needs of ethno-culturally diverse older immigrants in their programming and the implications for practice.
UNPACKING ACCESS TO HEALTH AND SOCIAL SERVICES FOR ETHNOCULTURAL MINORITY OLDER ADULTS
This report is the result of a planning grant exercise which is detailed in the lay summary for the grant that supported it, below: Recent immigrant older adults and some visible minorities who have aged here—together known as ethnic minority older adults (EMOA)—both experience health inequities in Canada. These are primarily related to difficulties with the complex process of accessing suitable care. However, Canadian research on the topic is extremely fragmented and hard to find, and knowledge users (KUs) who design policy and programs do not have the evidence they need to help them to address access barriers experienced by EMOA. Effort is needed to consolidate existing evidence and design research that fills knowledge gaps with respect to access so as to generate a decision-making tool that can guide KUs in their decisions across different health and social care contexts. Our team of 13 multidisciplinary academics and multisectoral KUs is uniquely positioned to meet this challeng...
JMIR Aging, 2018
Background: Older adults are the fastest growing age group worldwide and in Canada. Immigrants represent a significant proportion of older Canadians. Social isolation is common among older adults and has many negative consequences, including limited community and civic participation, increased income insecurity, and increased risk of elder abuse. Additional factors such as the social, cultural, and economic changes that accompany migration, language differences, racism, and ageism heighten older immigrants' vulnerability to social isolation. Objective: This mixed-methods sequential (qualitative-quantitative) study seeks to clarify older immigrants' social needs, networks, and support and how these shape their capacity, resilience, and independence in aging well in Ontario. Methods: Theoretically, our research is informed by an intersectionality perspective and an ecological model, allowing us to critically examine the complexity surrounding multiple dimensions of social identity (eg, gender and immigration) and how these interrelate at the micro (individual and family), meso (community), and macro (societal) levels in diverse geographical settings. Methodologically, the project is guided by a collaborative, community-based, mixed-methods approach to engaging a range of stakeholders in Toronto, Ottawa, Waterloo, and London in generating knowledge. The 4 settings were strategically chosen for their diversity in the level of urbanization, size of community, and the number of immigrants and immigrant-serving organizations. Interviews will be conducted in Arabic, Mandarin, and Spanish with older women, older men, family members, community leaders, and service providers. The study protocol has received ethics approval from the 4 participating universities. Results: Quantitative and qualitative data collection is ongoing. The project is funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Council of Canada. Conclusions: Comparative analyses of qualitative and quantitative data within and across sites will provide insights about common and unique factors that contribute to the well-being of older immigrants in different regions of Ontario. Given the comprehensive approach to incorporating local knowledge and expert contributions from multilevel stakeholders, the empirical and theoretical findings will be highly relevant to our community partners, help facilitate practice change, and improve the well-being of older men and women in immigrant communities.
Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health, 2021
Despite universal healthcare, immigrants often face unique challenges accessing healthcare. Employing an interpretative phenomenological analysis approach, four focus groups were conducted with 29 women and eight men from 15 different countries attending English language classes hosted at a non-governmental organization in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada in 2016 and 2017. Personal factors such as language barrier, lack of transportation, childcare and others interacted with systemic factors such as lack of appointment, long wait times, etc. delaying access at each point of contact with the healthcare system. Participants expressed dissatisfaction with the potency of medications, time spent in appointments and the way healthcare professionals communicated health information. The referral process and wait times were viewed as barriers to accessing specialist, diagnostic and acute care services. Participants were concerned that appropriate healthcare will be unavailable when needed. Strategies addressing systemic and person-specific barriers are needed to provide equitable client-centered care.
Perceptions of Older Immigrants About Health Care in the Host Countries: A Narrative Review
STEPP: socialinė teorija, empirija, politika ir praktika, 2023
Older immigrants may have different needs regarding health and care services compared to other age groups. There are suggestions for adapting health services to the elderly and even immigrant elderly in order to provide equal service to everyone. There are studies indicating that with advancing age chronic diseases increase and functional capacity decreases, resulting in poorer physical and psychosocial health in immigrant elderly than in the general elderly population. It is stated that immigrants' use of health services is lower than that of general population. Cultural and social factors influence health behaviors, opportunities, wishes and barriers for patients to access and use health and care services. Studies stated that elderly immigrants not knowing how to apply for health services, having language problems and being ineffective in communication with healthcare professionals, and experiencing lack of/insufficient social, community and family support, are lead to isolation and inadequate use of health services. In the narrative review, it is aimed to explore the existing research which was conducted on the experiences and perspectives of older immigrants, formal and informal caregivers and healthcare workers regarding health and care services and as well as interventions for better adaptation of health and care services among older immigrants.