Speaking of Care: Comparing Indicators of Language Identity and Preference for Equitable Access to Health Services in Quebec English-Speaking Populations

Many English-speaking residents in Quebec face challenges accessing health care in their preferred language. In advancing research and changing practices to better meet their needs, a key challenge lies in how we identify individuals who are English-speaking. Shifts in Canada’s demographic composition and increases in immigration has broadened the concept of English-speakers to include not only native English-speakers, but also persons with another mother tongue who speak English most often at home, as well as those who can conduct a conversation in English but not in French. Existing studies use varied and inconsistent approaches to defining linguistic identity such as mother tongue, first official language spoken, or language most often spoken at home.

This project will explore how traditional variables about language translate to the application of healthcare encounters. We will begin by forming a Patient Partner Council to collaborate closely with our research team throughout the project. Using existing large surveys of the Quebec population, we will identify different ways used to measure language and examine patterns and associations between these measures of language and health care access. Finally, we will present these results to English-speaking patients and health care providers in Quebec to obtain their perspectives of the most appropriate measures for capturing language identity and preferences as they relate to healthcare access. Ensuring language is measured in a way that reflects people’s healthcare preferences is a critical step toward building more inclusive, equitable health systems that meet the needs of the diverse English-speaking minority communities in Quebec.

Outputs:

Coming soon…