Stewart M J, Neufeld A, Harrison M J, Spitzer D, Hughes K, Makwarimba E
Faculty of Nursing and Faculty of Medicine (Public Health Sciences), University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada.
Health Soc Care Community. 2006 Jul;14(4):329-40. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2524.2006.00627.x.
Migration has become a profound global phenomenon in this century. In Canada, uncoordinated policies, including those related to immigration, resettlement, employment, and government funding for health and social services, present barriers to immigrant women caregivers. The purpose of this paper is to share relevant insights from individual and group interviews with immigrant women family caregivers, service providers and policy influencers, and discuss these in relation to immigration, health and social policy, and programme trends in Canada. The present authors conducted individual interviews with immigrant women family caregivers (n = 29) in phase 1, followed by two group interviews with women family caregivers (n = 7), and two group interviews with service providers and policy-makers (n = 15) in phase 2. Using an inductive approach, the authors employed thematic content data analysis. Immigrant women experienced barriers to health and social services similar to Canadian-born family caregivers, particularly those who have low incomes, jobs with limited flexibility and heavy caregiving demands. These immigrant women family caregivers avoided certain formal services for a variety of reasons, including lack of cultural sensitivity. However, their challenges were compounded by language, immigration and separation from family in the home country. The identified barriers to support reinforce the importance of modifying and expanding policies and programmes affecting immigrant women's ability to care for family members with illnesses or disabilities within the context of Canadian society. Participants recommended changes to policies and programmes to deal with information, transportation, language, attitudinal and network barriers. The various barriers to services and programmes which were experienced by immigrant women caregivers underscore the importance of reviewing policies affecting immigration, caregiving, and access to health and social services. Intersectoral collaboration among agencies is essential to reduce the barriers identified in the present study, and to establish services which are linguistically and culturally appropriate.
在本世纪，移民已成为一种深刻的全球现象。在加拿大，包括与移民、安置、就业以及政府对卫生和社会服务的资金投入相关政策在内的不协调政策，给移民女性照料者带来了障碍。本文旨在分享对移民女性家庭照料者、服务提供者和政策影响者进行的个人及小组访谈中的相关见解，并结合加拿大的移民、卫生和社会政策以及项目趋势进行讨论。本文作者在第一阶段对移民女性家庭照料者（n = 29）进行了个人访谈，随后在第二阶段对女性家庭照料者（n = 7）进行了两次小组访谈，对服务提供者和政策制定者（n = 15）进行了两次小组访谈。作者采用归纳法，运用主题内容数据分析。移民女性在获得卫生和社会服务方面遇到的障碍与加拿大出生的家庭照料者类似，尤其是那些低收入、工作灵活性有限且照料需求繁重的人。这些移民女性家庭照料者因多种原因避免使用某些正规服务，包括缺乏文化敏感性。然而，语言、移民以及与祖国家人分离使她们面临的挑战更加复杂。已确定的支持障碍凸显了在加拿大社会背景下修改和扩大影响移民女性照料患病或残疾家庭成员能力的政策和项目的重要性。参与者建议对政策和项目进行变革，以应对信息、交通、语言、态度和网络方面的障碍。移民女性照料者在服务和项目方面遇到的各种障碍强调了审查影响移民、照料以及获得卫生和社会服务的政策的重要性。各机构之间的部门间合作对于减少本研究中确定的障碍以及建立在语言和文化上合适的服务至关重要。
