In this qualitative community-based research, we explore service providers' use of activism-based resources and the supports they need to use activism as a tool to promote the mental health and wellbeing of racialized immigrant women. 19 service providers working in settlement and mental health services in the Greater Toronto Area, Canada, participated in one of three focus groups. We analyzed the data using a postcolonial feminist lens.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTreatment adherence is a fundamental aspect of heart failure (HF) management. This study aimed to explore the experiences of facilitators and inhibitors of treatment adherence in patients with HF. This descriptive qualitative study was conducted from May 2020 to June 2021.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAlthough immigrant women bear a disproportionate burden of chronic disease and mental health issues, limited research addresses how to promote their mental wellbeing. The authors first describe grounded theory findings from community-based focus group research with 57 racialized immigrant women in Toronto, Canada that used a critical gender and intersectional lens to explore the links among settlement, wellbeing, and activism. Secondly, a community mobilization strategy is described whereby racialized immigrant women discuss activism as a feature of wellbeing in various language communities while creating meaningful health promotion resources.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFProg Community Health Partnersh
August 2016
Background: Community-based participatory research (CBPR) is "a collaborative process that equitably involves all partners in the research process and recognizes the unique strengths that each brings." Yet working collaboratively throughout the research process is easier said than done.
Objectives: To illustrate what happens when community partners' and research partners' "unique strengths" or ways of working collide, and the lessons learned from the process partners used to work through their differences.
Int J Equity Health
September 2012
Background: Immigration is not a new phenomenon but, rather, has deep roots in human history. Documents from every era detail individuals who left their homelands and struggled to reestablish their lives in other countries. The aim of this study was to explore and understand the experience of Iranian immigrants who accessed Canadian health care services.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis paper reports on grounded theory findings that are relevant to promoting the mental health and well-being of immigrant women in Canada. The findings illustrate how relationships among settlement factors and dynamics of empowerment had implications for "becoming resilient" as immigrant women and how various health promotion approaches enhanced their well-being. Dimensions of empowerment were embedded in the content and process of the feminist health promotion approach used in this study.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInt J Equity Health
February 2012
Introduction: Iranians comprise an immigrant group that has a very different cultural background from that of the mainstream Canadian population and speaks a language other than English or French; in this case mainly Farsi (Persian). Although Iranian immigrants in Toronto receive a high proportion of care from Farsi-speaking family physicians and health care providers than physicians who cannot speak Farsi, they are still not satisfied with the provided services. The purpose of this study was to identify the obstacles and issues Iranian immigrants faced in accessing health care services as seen through the eyes of Iranian health care professionals/providers and social workers working in Greater Toronto Area, Canada.
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