Valery Ridde presented at the M8 Alliance Expert Meeting on Migrants’ and Refugees’ Health, held on June 23-24, 2017, in the Sapienza University of Rome, the results of a study on the health and access to care of uninsured migrants in Montreal.
About the presentation:
Access to care for uninsured migrants remains a challenge in Canada, and even more so in Montreal, where only one free medical clinic from Doctors of the World operates. No quantitative research has been conducted in community samples in Canada. We recruited in total 633 migrants, 283 people of which were recruited at the Doctors of the World clinic. Using snowball and venuebased sampling, with a solid communication campaign, we were able to recruit 350 further participants from the community. The descriptive data we have collected so far shows some differences between the population groups. These differences were between those who attended the clinic and those who did not and also between those who have temporary status and those without status. This presentation will be about demographics, social determinants of health, physical and mental health status, and access to care for this population group. Non-status individuals clearly show some additional factors which contribute to their vulnerability, as they tend to have been living in Canada longer, to have spent more years uninsured, and are more likely to experience psychological distress and to perceive their health as bad or fair. The main difference we were able to see in the population group who attended the Doctors of the World clinic, is that they have a much better knowledge of where they can seek care (85% compared to 34% of the community sample). We will also highlight how we were able to find participants, and the challenges in doing this work.
This work was realised by Valéry Ridde, Joséphine Aho, Magalie Benoit, Patrick Cloos, Amandine Fillol, Jill Hanley, Marie Munoz, Marie-Jo Ouimet and Marie-France Raynault, in a collaboration between the Public Health Research Institute (IRSPUM) and Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, School of Public Health, University of Montréal, Canada, and Médecins du Monde Canada.