Introduction
Despite Canada’s potential to offer its citizens primary care, the immigrants have reported occasions where their needs have been unmet, leading to the underutilization of healthcare services due to underlying barriers. The immigrants’ access to healthcare has resulted in contentious experiences for these groups regarding clinical practice. It is essential to study this subject so that existing challenges can be addressed and interventions regarding healthcare services can be implemented for immigrants in Canada.
The clinical justification for conducting a study on this matter is that medical firms can plan and leverage healthcare tasks to meet the requirements and demands of these individuals. In that case, possible mortalities, severe exacerbations, and increased hospitalizations will be reduced. Effective interventions include informing immigrants about where to access clinical services, dispelling their notion of receiving inadequate treatment, and reducing the time required to access health insurance and benefits in Canada.
Required Interventions to Bar Immigrant Healthcare Access Issues
Immigrants often go through hard times blending into the culture and lifestyle of the host country due to the discrimination prevalent in these countries. In Canada, there have been cases of social disparities committed against immigrants, making it hard for them to have equal access to primary care in the country. Rivera et al. (2021, p. 7) put that “Immigrants report unmet care needs and may underuse health care services due to not knowing where to access health care services, the perception that they would receive inadequate care, transportation barriers, and language barriers.”
This shows that there is a problem within the community that has facilitated these predicaments that these victims go through. According to the article, the required intervention involves having a regular doctor for this population and guiding them on how and where to access healthcare (Rivera et al., 2020). Furthermore, team-based primary care models may offer better healthcare access through exceptional cases and collaboration in care practice. They include community healthcare centers (CHCs) that can address this underlying issue.
There is a need to close the existing gap in healthcare for immigrants in Canada. Findings from Rivera et al. (2020) confirm that there is a gap in access to primary care based on mental health services that were investigated. The loophole is experienced due to health insurance coverage that has sidelined immigrants, forcing them to pay for their own medical bills, which raises concerns about affordability (Rivera et al., 2020).
In Canada, many provinces have a lengthy waiting period, typically three months, before immigrants can become eligible for provincial health coverage. That has caused delays in seeking or accessing clinical care in the country for the affected groups. Rivera et al. (2021) show that a family physician or psychiatrist may be available free of charge for non-immigrants with provincial insurance in all regions of Canada. Therefore, the difference in eligibility should be closed by having uniform requirements for immigrants and non-immigrants in Canada.
The government needs to develop rational measures for dealing with social disparities committed against immigrants in Canada. Grasser (2022, p. 5) states, “Not only does trauma experienced in home countries and as part of forced migration affect mental health, so too do post-migration traumatic events, discrimination, lack of access to quality and affordable healthcare and housing, and acculturation.” From that statement, it is clear that the government should initiate capacity building for healthcare stakeholders to combat discrimination, which will help ease access to healthcare.
Global data helps to conceptualize the need to understand the intensity of this matter in terms of the’ high number of immigrants in the world, which brings a course of action for intervention. The world has more than 8.2 million people as of 2020, with forced displacement issues such as refugees, internally displaced persons (IDPs), and asylum seekers (Grasser, 2022). As a result, there have been many health disparities, such as disruption of vaccination schedules and lack of access to healthcare. Many governments, including Canada’s, have fallen prey to the planning of these individuals in terms of securing sufficient resources to stabilize the provision of healthcare (Grasser, 2022).
Many face racial disparities and language problems, as they cannot understand the new language rationally. There has been less emphasis on mental health screening for refugees in Canada, which may lead to social and economic constraints. Therefore, a holistic approach should seek to educate and train health professionals in responding to both domestic and international persons regarding healthcare.
To counter the problem of inequality in healthcare for immigrants, the government should loosen metrics for care practices regarding this population. Healthcare access is unequal between permanent residents and immigrants in most parts of Canada. These groups have been affected by vulnerabilities due to a stratified society regarding societal matters, including healthcare (Campbell et al., 2012).
It is important to note that the healthcare-seeking behavior of these immigrants is radically distinct from that of the host majority, disadvantaging them in that regard. Additionally, Campbell et al. (2012) suggest that the fear of authorities has significantly contributed to these groups’ access to healthcare problems, leading them to seek black-market healthcare services. Therefore, the government must play a cautious role in promoting inclusivity in all public health institutions to combat this issue.
The three sources share similar main points regarding immigrants’ access to healthcare. The information derived from these sources is tallied with the concepts in other sources. Most peer-reviewed articles discuss social disparities as the key concern as to why immigrants cannot access healthcare sufficiently, and no disagreements are raised. For example, most refugees who come to Canada cannot express themselves in English and other Canadian languages, which disadvantages them as they fear being discriminated against for their accent and racial discrepancies.
My stance is that immigrants have challenges in access to healthcare due to their initial problems, and host countries should not despise them but develop a seamless process that is followed to get healthcare privileges. The reason is that a new country has different protocols concerning new entrants. Therefore, the interventions must be pro-immigrant to prevent healthcare liabilities.
Conclusion
Effective interventions exist to address the healthcare disparities immigrants face in Canada. These measures involve educating immigrants on where to access clinical services, addressing their concerns about inadequate care, and reducing the waiting period for obtaining health insurance in Canada. This essay suggests that Canada should loosen the duration that an immigrant must undergo to obtain healthcare privileges. The government must provide support through capacity building to healthcare stakeholders on how to address the issue.
References
Campbell, R. M., Klei, A. G., Hodges, B. D., Fisman, D., & Kitto, S. (2012). A comparison of health access between permanent residents, undocumented immigrants, and refugee claimants in Toronto, Canada. Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health, 16(1), 165–176. Web.
Grasser, L. R. (2022). Addressing mental health concerns in refugees and displaced populations: Is enough being done?Risk Management and Healthcare Policy, 15(5), 909–922. Web.
Rivera, J. M., Puyat, J. H., Wiedmeyer, M.-ling, & Lavergne, M. R. (2020). Primary care and access to mental health consultations among immigrants and non-immigrants with mood or anxiety disorders: The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 66(6), 540–550. Web.