Barriers to Health Service Utilization by Immigrant Families Raising a Disabled Child: Unmet Needs and the Role of Discrimination


This two-part, mixed methods study assessed attitudinal, policy, and practice barriers to health service utilization by immigrant parents from Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean who are raising a disabled child or youth in the Greater Toronto or Hamilton areas. The project was based on a critical review of the literature on immigrant/refugee families raising a child with a disability, which indicated that very little is known about the health and social service access, utilization, and service care experiences of these families, particularly in the Canadian context (King, Esses, & Solomon, in press). Directions identified for research included the need for comparative studies involving different immigrant populations, in order to determine common and unique barriers and areas of unmet need related to ethnicity. […]