Academic literature on the topic 'Black Canadians – Ontario – Scarborough'

IntroductionIn 2001, 50%–55% of French-speaking minority communities did not have access to health services in French in Canada. Although Canada is officially a bilingual country, reports indicate that many healthcare services offered in French in Anglophone provinces are insufficient or substandard, leading to healthcare discrepancies among Canada’s minority Francophone communities.ObjectivesThe primary aim of this scoping systematic review was to identify existing gaps in HIV-care delivery to Francophone minorities living with HIV in Canada.Study designScoping systematic review.Data sourcesSearch for studies published between 1990 and November 2019 reporting on health and healthcare in Francophone populations in Canada. Nine databases were searched, including Medline, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, the Cochrane Library, the National Health Service Economic Development Database, Global Health, PsychInfo, PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science.Study selectionEnglish or French language studies that include data on French-speaking people with HIV in an Anglophone majority Canadian province.ResultsThe literature search resulted in 294 studies. A total of 230 studies were excluded after duplicates were removed. The full texts of 43 potentially relevant papers were retrieved for evaluation and data extraction. Forty-one studies were further excluded based on failure to meet the inclusion criteria leaving two qualitative studies that met our inclusion criteria. These two studies reported on barriers on access to specialised care by Francophone and highlighted difficulties experienced by healthcare professionals in providing quality healthcare to Francophone patients in Ontario and Manitoba.ConclusionThe findings of this scoping systematic review highlight the need for more HIV research on linguistic minority communities and should inform health policymaking and HIV/AIDS community organisations in providing HIV care to Francophone immigrants and Canadians.

Abstract Background: Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) patients are amongst the most frequent utilizers of the emergency department (ED) for acute vaso-occlusive pain episodes ("crisis"). Unfortunately, ED SCD care often fails to meet guideline recommendations. This results in preventable morbidity and mortality as well as substantial resource utilization. Current care interventions across multiple domains have not led to sustained improvements, likely due in part to negative attitudes and beliefs among health care providers (HCP). Novel mechanisms of physician education are required to improve outcomes. An emerging method of education in SCD is the use of patients as "just in time" teachers. We refer to this as Patient Directed Physician Education (PDPE) and define it as a broad range of activities in which patients relay actionable information to HCPs in the clinical setting. While there is a growing body of research supporting patients as teachers, no group has specifically examined point of care PDPE in a SCD population. Objective: This study seeks to understand the current use and feasibility of SCD PDPE in the ED. Methods: This is a multi-centered, prospective descriptive qualitative design with semi-structured, audio taped individual interviews. SCD patients and ED physicians across Ontario, Canada were recruited to participate in the study through purposeful sampling. Qualitative analysis was performed using phenomenological inquiry, which encompasses qualitative approaches to inductively and holistically understand a human phenomenon (i.e. teaching and learning in sickle cell disease) in a context specific setting. Results: In total, 11 patients and 8 physicians participated in the study. Patient ages ranged from 21-67 and physician years in practice ranged from 3-21. The patient group predominately consisted of female Black Canadians (81%) while the physician group was mainly Caucasian males (63%) but did include representation from other ethnicities. There was significant variability in both self-described disease severity (patients) and frequency of SCD exposure (physicians). Both groups assessed themselves as having good to excellent SCD general knowledge or clinical acumen respectively. Within the qualitative analysis both groups responded favourably to PDPE and expressed confidence in its feasibility and ability to improve ED care. Barriers to the implementation of PDPE were expressed across three major domains; 1) patient factors, 2) health care worker factors, and 3) health care system factors. The ability of patients to present reliable health information was highlighted as a key factor in the success of PDPE by both groups. However, physicians and patients had strikingly different perspectives towards the inherent challenges. Patients identified triage delays and difficulty speaking due to intractable pain as the major barriers to shared decision making. Conversely, physicians largely did not appreciate these elements of the vaso-occlusive pain episode experience and instead expressed concerns regarding patient credibility, particularly in the context of high dose opiates. Overt racism or the perception of patient as "drug seeker" were not identified as major themes from either group. There was consensus towards written patient care plans, corroborating electronic health records, and collaboration from SCD experts as mechanisms to bridge the SCD patient/ED physician divide and facilitate PDPE. In addition, despite not being directly involved in PDPE, nurses experienced in SCD management were consistently noted to be instrumental in supporting the patient-physician interaction. Conclusions: Patient directed physician education is a feasible and novel SCD care innovation with support from both patients and ED physicians. Successful implementation will require credible educational adjuncts (e.g. patient pocket cards, care plans) and support from ED nurses and SCD experts. Our findings will serve as part of a continuum of research to engage patients as partners in improving SCD knowledge and care outcomes. Disclosures No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

Black Canadians are more likely to suffer health disparities compared to the majority of the population. This is an issue in regards to equity, where some people are not given the right tools needed for physical and/or mental wellness and prosperity. Black-White disparities are partially caused by socio-economic status (SES), sociocultural factors and the social determinants of health. According to public health studies, racism and perceiveddiscrimination, income, poverty and other factors affect adherence to physician referrals or advice and overall health among Black populations. Additionally, Afro-Caribbean cultures suffer from various health issues, such as obesity and hypertension, at a higher incidence than their White counterparts. Research shows that Community Health Clinics (CHCs) like TAIBU CHC in Scarborough, Ontario are likely to be effective in addressing disparities, as they provide care to those who need it most. To coordinate effective care to a specific community, they are using linguistic, sociocultural, evidential and other strategies. With these programs, however, it is important to still view the individual as having specific needs and issues and not just as a reflection of their culture when implementing cultural competence.Les Canadiens noirs font face à des disparités en matière de santé par rapport au reste de la population. Ceci est une question d’équité, car certaines personnes n’ont pas les outils nécessaires pour leur bien-être physique et/ou mental. Ces disparités sont partiellement causées par leur statut socioéconomique (SSE), les facteurs socioculturels et les déterminants sociaux de santé. Selon des études de santé publique, des facteurs tels que le racisme, la discrimination, le revenu et la pauvreté affectent l’adhésion des patients à des conseils médicaux ainsi que la santé globale de la population noire. En outre, la population afro-caribéenne souffre de problèmes de santé comme l’obésité et l’hypertension à une incidence plus élevée que leurs homologues blancs. La recherche montre que les cliniques de santé communautaire (CSC) comme TAIBU CHC à Scarborough, Ontario peuvent être efficaces en adressant les disparités, car elles fournissent des soins à ceux qui ont le plus besoin. Pour coordonner des soins efficaces pour une communauté spécifique, elles utilisent des stratégies linguistiques, socioculturelles, évidentielles, entre autres. Avec ces programmes, cependant, il reste important de répondre aux besoins individuels de la population tout en tenant compte de la culture lors d’une mise en oeuvre de compétences culturelles.

Summary In Canada, HIV disproportionately affects Black communities. Though Black faith leaders play an influential role engaging Black communities around social care and social justice, their response to HIV has been somewhat muted. Black PRAISE is a novel intervention for Black churches to strengthen congregants’ critical awareness of HIV affecting Black communities. A multi-stakeholder team developed and tested the intervention in 2016 − 17 among six churches in the province of Ontario, where more than half of Black Canadians reside, using a community-based participatory approach. Specifically, the intervention aimed to strengthen how congregants understand HIV among Black communities and reduce their level of stigma toward people living with HIV. We addressed critical awareness among the participating congregations through (i) disseminating a booklet with validated information that promoted critical health literacy related to HIV; (ii) enabling pastors to deliver a sermon on love, compassion and social justice; and (iii) developing and screening a short film that featured Black Canadians discussing their experiences of HIV-related stigma. We assessed changes in knowledge and stigma by surveying congregants (N = 173) at baseline and two follow-ups using validated instruments and other measures. Through Black PRAISE, congregants significantly increased their HIV-related knowledge; moreover, exposure to all the intervention components was associated with a significantly reduced level of stigma. A likely strategic outcome of Black PRAISE is that churches are empowered to help strengthen Black people’s community-based response to HIV and join efforts to eliminate the structural conditions that increase Black people’s vulnerability to HIV.

The historical experience of blacks in Canada has continued to be one of partial remembrance and recognition set against a highly developed and dominant Anglo portrayal of Canadian history. This partiality has greatly limited the development of identity for Canadian blacks due to general non-recognition of them on the part of the white Canadian majority. Historiographically, the historical presence of blacks in Canada has been constructed as distinctly provisional. This study will illustrate the historical exclusion of black Canadians from the Canadian historical narrative by examining pre-Confederation Canadian black history as it appeared in thirty-two intermediate level (grades 7-10) textbooks authorized for use in Ontario between 1950 and 1985. These textbooks were evaluated based on their coverage of slavery in Canada, the Loyalist migration, the War of 1812, the Rebellions of 1837, and the Underground Railroad. These events are helpful in this assessment because they exist at the intersection of noteworthy events in Canadian history and significant moments in the history of black migration and black contribution to the nation. By uncovering these omissions, this study will also discuss the extent to which "black Canadian-ness" was constructed within these texts as a contradiction in terms. Informed by anti-racist pedagogy concerning the hegemonic effects of curricula on racial identity formation, it will focus on where such exclusions affected the process of identity formation of Canadian blacks and how it contributed to the alienation of black children's sense of belonging to the Canadian nation, curtailing the development of an identifiably black and Canadian identity for indigenous black.

This article addresses the effects of COVID-19 in Eastern and Northern Ontario, Canada, with a comparative glimpse at the small province of Totonicapán, Guatemala, with which Canadians have been involved in obstetric and midwifery care in particular over the last 5 years. With universal health care coverage since 1966 and well-integrated midwifery, Canada's system would be considered relatively well set up to deal with a disaster like COVID-19 compared to low resource countries like Guatemala or countries without universal health care insurance (like the USA). However, the epidemic has uncovered the fact that in Ontario, Indigenous, Black, and People of Color (IBPOC), as elsewhere, may have been hardest hit, often not by actually contracting COVID-19, but by suffering secondary consequences. While COVID-19 could be an issue through which health care professionals can come together, there are signs that the medical hierarchies in many hospitals in both Ontario and Totonicapán are taking advantage of COVID-19 to increase interventive measures in childbirth and reduce midwives' involvement in hospitals. Meanwhile, home births are on the rise in both jurisdictions. Stories from a Jamaican Muslim woman in Ottawa, an Indigenous midwifery practice in Northern Ontario, registered midwives in Eastern Ontario, and about the traditional midwives in Guatemala reveal similar as well as unique problems resulting from the lockdowns. While this article is not intended to constitute an exhaustive analysis of social justice and human rights issues in Canada and Guatemala, we do take this opportunity to demonstrate where COVID-19 has become a catalyst that challenges the standard narrative, exposing the old ruts and blind spots of inequality and discrimination that our hierarchies and inadequate data collection—until the epidemic—were managing to ignore. As health advocates, we see signs that this pandemic is resulting in more open debate, which we hope will last long after it is over in both our countries.

New Year. In this edition of the news I am highlighting several online resources as well as conferences, tours, and exhibits of possible interest.First of all, I highly suggest you sign up at the Alberta School Library Council's new LitPicks site (aslclitpicks.ca). It is free, filled with promise, and includes only books recommended by the reviewers. The reviews are searchable by grade level and genre (e.g., animal, biographical fable, fantasy, humour, historical, horror, verse, realistic, mystery, myth) and include all formats. The reviews include curriculum connections and links to relevant resources. Library staff review titles based on engagement of story, readability, descriptive language, illustration excellence and integrity of data, and source for non-fiction titles. The target users are teachers, teacher-librarians, library techs, and others working in libraries. School library cataloguers can provide a link to the review from within the catalogue record.Another recommended resource is CanLit for Little Canadians, a blog that focuses on promoting children's and YA books by Canadian authors and illustrators. The blog postings can also be found on Facebook. (http://canlitforlittlecanadians.blogspot.ca/)First Nation Communities READ is another resource for your tool box. It is an annual reading program launched in 2003 by the First Nations public library community in Ontario and includes titles that are written and/or illustrated by (or otherwise involve the participation of) a First Nation, Métis, or Inuit creator and contain First Nation, Métis, or Inuit content produced with the support of First Nation, Métis, or Inuit advisers/consultants or First Nation, Métis, or Inuit endorsement. Julie Flett's Wild Berries - Pakwa Che Menisu, available in both English and Cree, was the First Nation Communities Read Selection for 2014-2015 and the inaugural recipient of the Periodical Marketers of Canada Aboriginal Literature Award. (http://www.sols.org/index.php/develop-your-library-staff/advice-consulting/first-nations/fn-communities-read)This resource should also be of great value for those schools and libraries participating in TD Canadian Children’s Book Week in 2015. Each May, authors, illustrators and storytellers visit communities throughout the country to share the delights of Canadian children’s books. Book Week reaches over 25,000 children and teens in schools and libraries across Canada every year. The theme for this year is Hear Our Stories: Celebrating First Nations, Métis and Inuit Literature, celebrating the remarkable variety of topics, genres and voices being published by and about members of our First Nations, Métis and Inuit (FNMI) communities in Canada. On a personal note, I will be touring as a storyteller in Quebec as part of this year’s Book Week tour.Freedom to Read Week: February 22-28, 2015. This annual event encourages Canadians to think about and reaffirm their commitment to intellectual freedom, which is guaranteed them under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. This year’s Freedom to Read review marks the thirtieth anniversary of its publication and of Freedom to Read Week in Canada. It was first published in 1984 to explore the freedom to read in Canada and elsewhere and to inform and assist booksellers, publishers, librarians, students, educators, writers and the public. To commemorate Freedom to Read’s thirtieth anniversary, some of our writers have cast a look back over the past three decades. As usual, the review provides exercises and resources for teachers, librarians and students. This and previous issues of Freedom to Read, as well as appendices and other resources, are available at www.freedomtoread.ca.Half for you and Half for Me: Nursery Rhymes and Poems we Love. An exhibit on best-loved rhymes and poems and a celebration of the 40th anniversary of Alligator Pie held at the Osborne Collection in the Lillian H. Smith Library in Toronto until March 7, 2015.Serendipity 2015 (March 7, 2015). An exciting day exploring the fabulous world of young adult literature with Holly Black, Andrew Smith, Mariko Tamaki, Molly Idle, and Kelli Chipponeri. Costumes recommended! Swing Space Building, 2175 West Mall on the UBC campus. (http://vclr.ca/serendipity-2015/)For educators: Call for entries for the Martyn Godfrey Young Writers Award (YABS). An annual, juried contest open to all students in Alberta in grades 4 through 9. Students are invited to submit their short stories (500-1500 words) or comic book by March 31, 2015 to the YABS office, 11759 Groat Road, Edmonton, AB, T5M 3K6. Entries may also be emailed to info@yabs.ab.ca.Breaking News: The Canada Council for the Arts has revised the Governor General’s Literary Awards Children’s Literature categories (in consultation with the literary community) in the wake of controversy regarding graphic novels. The revised category titles and definitions:The new Children’s Literature – Illustrated Books category will recognize the best illustrated book for children or young adults, honouring the text and the illustrations as forming one creative work. It includes picture books and graphic novels, as well as works of fiction, literary non-fiction, and poetry where original illustrations occupy at least 30% of the book’s space.The Children’s Literature – Text category will recognize the best book for children or young adults with few (less than 30%) or no illustrations. http://www.bookcentre.ca/news/governor_general%E2%80%99s_literary_awards_revisions_children%E2%80%99s_literature_categoriesGail de Vos, an adjunct instructor, teaches courses on Canadian children's literature, Young Adult Literature and Comic Books and Graphic Novels at the School of Library and Information Studies for the University of Alberta and is the author of nine books on storytelling and folklore. She is a professional storyteller and has taught the storytelling course at SLIS for over two decades.

This chapter explores the meaning of fugitive slave freedom in Canada West during the antebellum and Civil War era by examining the legal framework relating to slavery and race that emerged in what is now modern-day Ontario. Changes in statutory law, jurisprudence, and British free soil diplomacy will be addressed, revealing the evolution of Canada West as a safe haven from which few fugitive slaves were taken by slave catchers or state-sanctioned extradition. The chapter discusses what freedom on the ground meant for early black Canadians in terms of political rights, access to courts, education, landownership, employment, religious worship, participation in the militia, and the enjoyment of public places and services. Particular attention is given to the agency exercised by fugitive slave refugees and other black Canadians in shaping their own freedom and building new lives for themselves and their children, in sustaining Canada West as a beacon of freedom for others still enslaved in the American South, and in combatting race prejudice, which at times differed little from that prevailing south of the border.