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This article reports findings from an applied case study of collaboration between a community-based organization staffed by community health workers/multicultural health brokers (CHWs/MCHBs) serving immigrants and refugees and a local public health unit in Alberta, Canada. In this study, we explored the challenges, successes and unrealized potential of CHWs/MCHBs in facilitating culturally responsive access to healthcare and other social services for new immigrants and refugees. We suggest that health equity for marginalized populations such as new immigrants and refugees could be improved by increasing the role of CHWs in population health programs in Canada. Furthermore, we propose that recognition by health and social care agencies and institutions of CHWs/MCHBs, and the role they play in such programs, has the potential to transform the way we deliver healthcare services and address health equity challenges. Such recognition would also benefit CHWs and the populations they serve.

Type

Journal article

Journal

Healthcare policy = Politiques de sante

Publication Date

01/2014

Volume

10

Pages

73 - 85

Addresses

Postdoctoral Fellow, Institut de recherche en santé publique, de l'Université de Montréal (IRSPUM), Montreal, QC.

Keywords

Humans, Professional Role, Models, Theoretical, Qualitative Research, Alberta, Interviews as Topic, Emigrants and Immigrants, Health Status Disparities, Community Health Workers