Immigrant women’s experiences of receiving care in a mobile health clinic

Abstract

Mobile health clinics should be considered as an alternative care delivery model for immigrant women who may be at a disadvantage because of their socio-economic, cultural, and racialized statuses.

A Scoping Review of Immigrant Experience of Health Care Access Barriers in Canada

“…Women participants in qualitative studies discussed their daily roles as sources of barriers to accessing health care in that individuals' needs clashed with health system structure and expectations. Role expectations of matriarchs and caregivers were the most commonly cited as having disparate priorities compared to health care systems, such as in Guruge et al [24]. Furthermore, there was a dearth of studies concerning the experience of male immigrants.…”

“…Lack of information about how to access/navigate services 16 [14, 16, 18-20, 22, 24-26, 29-34, 39] 3 Cultural differences 13 [17, 19, 20, 22, 23, 27, 29, 31, 33-35, 38, 39] 4 Financial barriers 9 [16,20,22,23,25,27,29,31,39] 5 Transportation 8 [20, 25-27, 29, 31, 32, 34] 5 Dissatisfaction with patient/provider interaction 8 [19,20,24,26,27,33,35,38] 6 Long wait times/lists 7 [16-20, 32, 39] 6…”

“…They discussed how self-advocacy is a necessary skill for navigating the Canadian health care system, and recognized it as a challenge for immigrants who do not necessarily have the English language ability or confidence to express their needs, opinions and complaints [23,24,33,34]. Health care workers also expressed marked dissatisfaction with translation and interpreter services, and reported that formal interpreters tended to interfere with rapport-building and rush appointments [33].…”

“…Shyness and modesty was found to be a barrier for South Asian women receiving mammograms [27], but not for South Asian women regarding Pap tests [28]. Contrary to Vietnamese and South Asian sentiments, Portuguese-speaking immigrants attending a mobile health clinic spoke adamantly about the importance of preventative health practices [24].…”

“…[21]. Other specific groups studied were Iranian [22], Vietnamese [23], Portuguese-speaking [24], Francophone [25], and Asian [26]. Among studies of Chinese and South Asian immigrant populations, four research topics emerged: South Asian women's access to cervical cancer screening and mammography [27,28], health care access barriers for Chinese and South Asian seniors [19,20,29], health care access experiences of Chinese and South Asian parents of children with cancer [30,31], and barriers to accessing family physicians experienced by Chinese immigrants [17].…”