Literature Review: Poverty, Housing, Race-based discrinimation and health care

Posted by on September 23, 2005

[posted from Community Based Participatory Research listserv]

Access Alliance Multicultural Community Health Centre (AAMCHC) and its partners have been working together to develop a long-term program of research to investigate the impact of income, housing, race-based discrimination and access to health care on the health status of racialised groups in Toronto and to increase the capacity of community organisations, academics and other stakeholders to work collaboratively to develop proposals.

They have just published the report “Racialised Groups and Health Status: A Literature Review Exploring Poverty, Housing, Race-Based Discrimination and Access to Health Care as Determinants of Health for Racialised Groups.” They are pleased to make the literature review available to other service providers, activists, researchers and community members who may want to draw on it to develop their own projects and initiatives to reduce health disparities.

What has been particularly exciting about the Racialised Groups and Health Status initiative is that the research agenda has been in the hands of community organisations. This community-based research project has been led by AAMCHC and carried out in partnership with various community organisations, academic researchers, government representatives and community stakeholders who have worked together to develop sound and rigorous research projects that are intended to lead to action and change. The partners were organized into four working groups to explore the interconnections between racialisation and a particular determinant of health (i.e., poverty, housing, discrimination and access to care).

As part of the process of setting research priorities, different bodies of literature (corresponding to the areas covered by each working group) were reviewed to gain an understanding of the information that is already available and to identify knowledge gaps that need to be filled. This review was guided by the interests expressed by working group members as well as by community members and service providers who participated in focus groups and popular education activities, including a forum on Community-Based Research, which took place in late 2004. The report from this forum is available at
http://www.socialplanningtoronto.org/Research%20&%20Policy%20Updates/Research%20&%20Policy%20Updates.htm

A PDF version of the report is available at:
http://atwork.settlement.org/sys/atwork_whatshappen_detail.asp?anno_id=200545

Hardcopies may also be obtained by contacting Helene Grgoire, Research & Evaluation Coordinator, AAMCHC. Tel: 416.324.0927, x. 286
Email: hgregoire@accessalliance.ca

Listserv subscribers may be interested in other AAMCHC publications, including:

Putting Data to Work for Immigrants and Communities: Tools for the Washington DC Metro Area and Beyond

This report promotes the effective use of demographic data by community-based organizations working with and on behalf of immigrants – March 2004.
http://atwork.settlement.org/atwork/research/agency.asp