Social Determinants

450 articles:
Inequity
Indigenous
LGBTQ
Gender
Disability
Racism
by Nicole Naimer

Quit your job, go home and prepare to die: Surviving the AIDS epidemic

In 1986, I left Toronto and moved to New York. I fell head over heels for a man in 1988. We wanted to make sure we didn’t transmit HIV to each other, so we got tested. I felt healthy as ever. However, my test came back: HIV positive.
by Meghan McGee

To tackle food insecurity, school adds hunting and fishing to reading, ‘riting and ‘rithmetic

Faced with rampant food insecurity in the Eel Ground First Nation, New Brunswick, one elementary school principal started the Kelulk Mijipjewe food program to provide nutritious meals and teach students about Indigenous food culture.

by Meghan McGee

‘As a matter of policy, kids were hungry in residential schools’: The dark history of Canada’s food guide

Canada's Food Guide has its roots in controversial experiments conducted on Indigenous children and adults in the 1940's and 50's.

by Nicole Naimer

Born with a disease that kills but not at death’s door: Living in that in between

As a child with cystic fibrosis, I was hit with this adult issue of mortality – something no 5-year-old should be worrying about. When I was born in 1971, the median survival rate for women with CF was 20 years old. I’ve chased that median age of survival my whole life.
by Katharine Lake Berz

‘This is a place of healing’: The power of a sweat-lodge ceremony

Once a custom practised mainly by the Lakota Indigenous tribes, sweat lodges are growing in popularity in British Columbia, cropping up on many rural properties and Indigenous lands as group gatherings and tourists promise to return now that the pandemic is receding.
by Kelly Rezansoff

The Time is Now for LGBT+ Health Equity

Creating inclusive environments for LGBT+ clients has not occurred on a broad scale in Canada or elsewhere. The onus is on the health-care system and its leaders, from the local level to the federal government, to address LGBT+ health inequity. The lives of millions of people depend on it.
by Anthony Fong

Nunavut struggling with crisis that ‘won’t go away’

Food insecurity in Nunavut has been called “among the longest-lasting public health crises faced by a Canadian population.”
by Idil Abdillahi Anne Rucchetto

College must act to ensure equitable health-care outcomes for women, marginalized communities

Differences in surgical outcomes between men and women may be part of a larger gendered public health crisis.
by Aamir Bharmal Tannis Cheadle

Lessons learned in the collection of disaggregated ethno-racial data

COVID-19’s disproportionate impact on racialized groups has catalyzed calls for the systematic collection of data disaggregated by race. So we're sharing five key lessons we learned from collecting ethno-racial data for COVID-19 case management in B.C.
by Nili Kaplan-Myrth

‘We will not hide out of fear’: Open letter speaks out against harassment

Physicians and other health-care workers have been subject to harassment and intimidation for doing their day-to-day work during the pandemic explains Dr. Kaplan-Myrth, who recently penned an open letter asserting why health professionals should not hide out of fear of violence from hate-fueled convoys.

by Junayd Hussain Noor Al-Kaabi

We need to do more: Advocating for refugee health after arrival in Canada

Canada is considered a “world destination” for refugees, but are we doing enough to support their unique health needs?

by Rehona Zamani

The fight for women’s autonomy must include those who wear the hijab

It's a battle to wake up and choose the hijab each day. I truly believe in this aspect of my faith, but the fear and experience of harassment and discrimination is a form of oppression I endure. I know this is a feeling shared by my peers in medicine.
by Marianne Apostolides

Lessons learned, mistakes repeated: From HIV/AIDS to COVID-19

Many infectious disease practitioners pivoted from HIV to COVID when the pandemic struck. Now, some of them are sharing their views on what we’ve learned, where we’ve repeated mistakes, and how we can move forward.
by Stephanie Ragganandan Karen Lawford

Challenging oppressive maternity health care in Canada

Improving health care must begin by recognizing the interconnected webs of colonization woven into all health-care systems in Canada. A good place to start would be at the beginning – with maternity care and birth.
by Camille Gauthier Jamie Thompson

Ontario’s position on midwifery puts rural and Indigenous communities at risk

For the Ford government, midwives' demands for equitable pay are unacceptable. But instead of using tax dollars to fight midwives in court, Ford should recognize gender-based inequities, address the pay gap and invest in rural and northern midwifery programs.
by Marianne Apostolides

Digital therapeutics and the social determinants of health are on divergent pathways. Can they be reconciled?

Two significant trends in health care are at cross-purposes: the boom in digital devices that tackle diseases at the individual level, and the growing recognition of the importance of social determinants of health. Can these two trends be reconciled?
by Anthony Fong

Inuit communities bracing for return of RSV in babies

Health advocates are raising alarm that infants in Nunavut, and especially Inuit infants, face grave risks as a potent respiratory virus – deadlier than COVID-19 and influenza – re-emerges after a one-year hiatus. Health officials now fear serious outbreaks in Canada’s North.
by Surbhi Kalia Paula Rochon

Promoting gender equity in healthy aging matters

Longer lives are one of the greatest achievements in medicine. Yet we see a diminished quality of life for many older adults, especially women, due to inequities institutionalized in health care. So how do we de-institutionalize these inequities?
by Anthony Fong

Study debunks ‘women choose to work less’ myth behind health-care pay gap

A recent Ontario Medical Association reaffirmed that male doctors in Ontario are paid 13.5 per cent more per day than women, and it highlights where the issue is most acute: for example, in the supposedly gender-blind fee-for-service payment system.
by Sanchit Gupta

Students the driving force behind innovative food-share program

Food insecurity has increased during COVID-19, even as lots of food is wasted in Canada. MealCare is addressing both problems by diverting surplus food from grocery stores, cafeterias and caterers to homeless shelters, food banks and soup kitchens.

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