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A qualitative study on African immigrant and refugee families’ experiences of accessing primary health care services in Manitoba, Canada: it’s not easy!

BACKGROUND: Immigrant and refugee families form a growing proportion of the Canadian population and experience barriers in accessing primary health care services. The aim of this study was to examine the experiences of access to primary health care by African immigrant and refugee families. METHODS:...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Woodgate, Roberta Lynn, Busolo, David Shiyokha, Crockett, Maryanne, Dean, Ruth Anne, Amaladas, Miriam R., Plourde, Pierre J.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5223444/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28068998
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12939-016-0510-x
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author Woodgate, Roberta Lynn
Busolo, David Shiyokha
Crockett, Maryanne
Dean, Ruth Anne
Amaladas, Miriam R.
Plourde, Pierre J.
author_facet Woodgate, Roberta Lynn
Busolo, David Shiyokha
Crockett, Maryanne
Dean, Ruth Anne
Amaladas, Miriam R.
Plourde, Pierre J.
author_sort Woodgate, Roberta Lynn
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Immigrant and refugee families form a growing proportion of the Canadian population and experience barriers in accessing primary health care services. The aim of this study was to examine the experiences of access to primary health care by African immigrant and refugee families. METHODS: Eighty-three families originating from 15 African countries took part in multiple open ended interviews in western Canada. Qualitative data was collected in six different languages between 2013 and 2015. Data analysis involved delineating units of meaning from the data, clustering units of meaning to form thematic statements, and extracting themes. RESULTS: African immigrant and refugee families experienced challenges in their quest to access primary health care that were represented by three themes: Expectations not quite met, facing a new life, and let’s buddy up to improve access. On the theme of expectations not quite met, families struggled to understand and become familiar with a new health system that presented with a number of barriers including lengthy wait times, a shortage of health care providers, high cost of medication and non-basic health care, and less than ideal care. On the theme of facing a new life, immigrant and refugee families talked of the difficulties of getting used to their new and unfamiliar environments and the barriers that impact their access to health care services. They talked of challenges related to transportation, weather, employment, language and cultural differences, and lack of social support in their quest to access health care services. Additionally, families expressed their lack of social support in accessing care. Privately sponsored families and families with children experienced even less social support. Importantly, in the theme of let’s buddy up to improve access, families recommended utilizing networking approaches to engage and improve their access to primary health care services. CONCLUSIONS: African immigrant and refugee families experience barriers to accessing primary health care. To improve access, culturally relevant programs, collaborative networking approaches, and policies that focus on addressing social determinants of health are needed.
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spelling pubmed-52234442017-01-11 A qualitative study on African immigrant and refugee families’ experiences of accessing primary health care services in Manitoba, Canada: it’s not easy! Woodgate, Roberta Lynn Busolo, David Shiyokha Crockett, Maryanne Dean, Ruth Anne Amaladas, Miriam R. Plourde, Pierre J. Int J Equity Health Research BACKGROUND: Immigrant and refugee families form a growing proportion of the Canadian population and experience barriers in accessing primary health care services. The aim of this study was to examine the experiences of access to primary health care by African immigrant and refugee families. METHODS: Eighty-three families originating from 15 African countries took part in multiple open ended interviews in western Canada. Qualitative data was collected in six different languages between 2013 and 2015. Data analysis involved delineating units of meaning from the data, clustering units of meaning to form thematic statements, and extracting themes. RESULTS: African immigrant and refugee families experienced challenges in their quest to access primary health care that were represented by three themes: Expectations not quite met, facing a new life, and let’s buddy up to improve access. On the theme of expectations not quite met, families struggled to understand and become familiar with a new health system that presented with a number of barriers including lengthy wait times, a shortage of health care providers, high cost of medication and non-basic health care, and less than ideal care. On the theme of facing a new life, immigrant and refugee families talked of the difficulties of getting used to their new and unfamiliar environments and the barriers that impact their access to health care services. They talked of challenges related to transportation, weather, employment, language and cultural differences, and lack of social support in their quest to access health care services. Additionally, families expressed their lack of social support in accessing care. Privately sponsored families and families with children experienced even less social support. Importantly, in the theme of let’s buddy up to improve access, families recommended utilizing networking approaches to engage and improve their access to primary health care services. CONCLUSIONS: African immigrant and refugee families experience barriers to accessing primary health care. To improve access, culturally relevant programs, collaborative networking approaches, and policies that focus on addressing social determinants of health are needed. BioMed Central 2017-01-09 /pmc/articles/PMC5223444/ /pubmed/28068998 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12939-016-0510-x Text en © The Author(s). 2017 Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
spellingShingle Research
Woodgate, Roberta Lynn
Busolo, David Shiyokha
Crockett, Maryanne
Dean, Ruth Anne
Amaladas, Miriam R.
Plourde, Pierre J.
A qualitative study on African immigrant and refugee families’ experiences of accessing primary health care services in Manitoba, Canada: it’s not easy!
title A qualitative study on African immigrant and refugee families’ experiences of accessing primary health care services in Manitoba, Canada: it’s not easy!
title_full A qualitative study on African immigrant and refugee families’ experiences of accessing primary health care services in Manitoba, Canada: it’s not easy!
title_fullStr A qualitative study on African immigrant and refugee families’ experiences of accessing primary health care services in Manitoba, Canada: it’s not easy!
title_full_unstemmed A qualitative study on African immigrant and refugee families’ experiences of accessing primary health care services in Manitoba, Canada: it’s not easy!
title_short A qualitative study on African immigrant and refugee families’ experiences of accessing primary health care services in Manitoba, Canada: it’s not easy!
title_sort qualitative study on african immigrant and refugee families’ experiences of accessing primary health care services in manitoba, canada: it’s not easy!
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5223444/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28068998
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12939-016-0510-x
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