"They forgot about us": experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic among people deprived of housing in an urban centre in Ontario, Canada

OBJECTIVES

People deprived of housing have been disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and the public health mitigation measures implemented in response. Emerging evidence has shown the adverse health outcomes experienced by these communities due to SARS-CoV-2 infection; however, the voices of community members themselves have not been widely amplified in the published literature.

METHODS

We conducted an interpretive qualitative study. People deprived of housing were involved in study development, recruitment, and data analysis. People deprived of housing or precariously housed were recruited during street outreach from June to July 2020. Participants completed one-on-one semi-structured interviews that were audio-recorded, transcribed, and analyzed thematically.

RESULTS

Twenty-one participants were interviewed. Central to participants' experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic were descriptions of access to services, in terms of both changes in service availability and the reality of how accessible existing services were to the community, represented by the theme access. Four other themes were generated from our analysis and include feeling and being unheard, stripped of dignity, I've been broken, and strength and survival (with a subtheme, community care).

CONCLUSION

Future emergency response efforts must meaningfully engage people deprived of housing in planning and decision-making in order to minimize adverse impacts of health emergencies and the associated public health responses. There needs to be more careful consideration of the unintended harmful impacts of public health measures implemented in response to pandemics.

'It's so simple' Lessons from the margins: a qualitative study of patient experiences of a mobile health clinic in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

OBJECTIVE

Our study explored the experiences of clients of HAMSMaRT (Hamilton Social Medicine Response Team), a mobile health service, in the context of their experiences of the overall healthcare system.

DESIGN

We conducted a qualitative study with reflexive thematic analysis.

SETTING

HAMSMaRT is a mobile health service in Hamilton, Ontario Canada providing primary care, internal and addiction medicine and infectious diseases services.

PARTICIPANTS

Eligible participants were clients of HAMSMaRT who could understand English to do the interview and at least 16 years of age. Fourteen clients of HAMSMaRT were interviewed.

RESULTS

Our findings represented five themes. When the themes of people deserve care, from the margins to the centre, and improved and different access to the system are enacted, the model of care works, represented by the theme it works!. The way in which participants compared their experiences of HAMSMaRT to the mainstream healthcare system insinuated how simple it is, represented by the theme it's so simple.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings offer guidance to the broader healthcare system for walking from the rhetoric to practice of person-centred care.

"They're causing more harm than good": a qualitative study exploring racism in harm reduction through the experiences of racialized people who use drugs

Background

Increased opioid-related morbidity and mortality in racialized communities has highlighted the intersectional nature of the drug policy crisis. Given the racist evolution of the war on drugs and the harm reduction (HR) movement, the aim of this study is to explore racism within harm reduction services through the perspectives of our participants.

Methods

We conducted a qualitative descriptive study to explore the perspectives of racialized service users and providers on racism in the HR movement in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA). Four racialized service users and four racialized service providers participated in semi-structured interviews that were audio-recorded, transcribed, and analysed thematically.

Results

Five themes related to racism in HR were generated: (1) whiteness of harm reduction as a barrier to accessing services, (2) diversifying HR workers as a step towards overcoming distrust, (3) drop-in spaces specific to Black, Indigenous, and people of colour are facilitators to accessing harm reduction, (4) lack of representation in HR-related promotional and educational campaigns, and (5) HR as a frontier for policing.

Conclusions

Our findings suggest that structural and institutional racism are prevalent in HR services within the GTHA, in the form of colour-blind policies and practices that fail to address the intersectional nature of the drug policy crisis. There is a need for local HR organizations to critically reflect and act on their practices and policies, working with communities to become more equitable, inclusive, and accessible spaces for all people who use drugs.

Sociodemographic Characteristics and Clinical Outcomes of People Receiving Inadequate Prenatal Care: A Retrospective Cohort Study

OBJECTIVE

This study sought to describe the incidence inadequate prenatal care (IPNC) at an urban level II hospital in Hamilton, Ontario, and to compare the characteristics and outcomes of mothers who received IPNC and their newborns with those who received adequate prenatal care (APNC). This study is the first part of a mixed-methods research program aimed at informing the development of an interdisciplinary, patient-centred, prenatal care program for people who struggle to access conventional modes of care.

METHODS

This retrospective cohort study compared mothers and neonates born at St. Joseph's Health Care Hamilton in 2016 with IPNC (fewer than or equal to four antenatal visits, or first visit in third trimester) with those born with APNC (five or more prenatal visits and initial visit before the third trimester). Cases and controls matched 3:1 for age and parity were identified through a retrospective chart review.

RESULTS

In total 3235 charts were reviewed, and 69 cases of IPNC were identified (2.1%). The IPNC group had lower education and higher unemployment levels, as well as higher rates of smoking and drug use. Our primary and secondary outcomes of newborn custody loss, neonatal intensive care unit admission, and neonatal length of stay were significantly higher in the IPNC group.

CONCLUSION

Patients delivering with IPNC represent a high-risk group with increased rates of adverse neonatal outcomes and newborn custody loss. This quantitative study will inform future research and innovative interdisciplinary program development aimed at increasing access to prenatal care in an effort to improve maternal and neonatal outcomes.

Access to midwifery care for people of low socio-economic status: a qualitative descriptive study

Background

Despite public funding of midwifery care, people of low-socioeconomic status are less likely to access midwifery care in Ontario, Canada, but little is known about barriers that they experience in accessing midwifery care. The purpose of this study was to examine the barriers and facilitators to accessing midwifery care experienced by people of low-socioeconomic status.

Methods

A qualitative descriptive study design was used. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 30 pregnant and post-partum people of low-socioeconomic status in Hamilton, Ontario from January to May 2018. Transcribed interviews were coded using open coding techniques and thematically analyzed.

Results

We interviewed 13 midwifery care recipients and 17 participants who had never received care from midwives. Four themes arose from the interviews: “I had no idea…”, “Babies are born in hospitals”, “Physicians as gateways into prenatal care”, and “Why change a good thing?”. Participants who had not experienced midwifery care had minimal knowledge of midwifery and often had misconceptions about midwives’ scope of practice and education. Prevailing beliefs about pregnancy and birth, particularly concerns about safety, drove participants to seek care from a physician. Physicians are the entry point into the health care system for many, yet few participants received information about midwifery care from physicians. Participants who had experienced midwifery care found it to be an appropriate match for the needs of people of low socioeconomic status. Word of mouth was a primary source of information about midwifery and the most common reason for people unfamiliar with midwifery to seek midwifery care.

Conclusions

Access to midwifery care is constrained for people of low-socioeconomic status because lack of awareness about midwifery limits the approachability of these services, and because information about midwifery care is often not provided by physicians when pregnant people first contact the health care system. For people of low-socioeconomic status, inequitable access to midwifery care may be exacerbated by lack of knowledge about midwifery within social networks and a tendency to move passively through the health care system which traditionally favours physician care. Targeted efforts to address this issue are necessary to reduce disparities in access to midwifery care.