Public health initiatives across Canada are providing help to provide at-risk communities with resources they need, such as mental health support.GETTY IMAGES
Earlier this year, Foundry, a B.C.-based program that provides young people with access to health and wellness services, became one of the first six projects to get funding through the federal government’s Youth Mental Health Fund. The $46-million dollar fund is aimed at improving access to care for Canadian young people over the next five years.
Foundry supports youth across 17 centres in B.C., as well as virtually via its app, boasting a truly “integrated” model of care. That means a young person can access mental health support, substance use services and sexual health resources all in one place, without having to navigate multiple systems. It’s an innovative, holistic approach designed to meet complex needs with simplicity, dignity and speed.
“When young people experience challenges in their lives, large or small, whether related to mental health, substance use, physical health or their identity, it can be easy to feel alone and isolated,” said Foundry’s co-executive director Dr. Steve Mathias, in a statement at the time of the funding announcement. “But having confidential and safe spaces to speak to trusting professionals is critical to supporting youth and those who love them.”
This isn’t the only public health initiatives that’s using innovative, culturally-sensitive tactics to support Canada’s most underserved communities.
In Ontario, you’ll find the POP Clinic, a pediatric outreach clinic operated by Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children in partnership with The Canadian Centre For Refugee and Immigrant Healthcare (CCRIHC). Since 2007, the clinic has offered healthcare for children and youth who are new to Canada, but who might be undocumented and medically uninsured – according to the CCRIHC, that’s up to 75 per cent of newcomer children. By providing everything from specialist care to school-required vaccinations, the clinic fills critical gaps in care that newcomer kids need and makes sure no one slips through the cracks in Canada’s healthcare system.
According to Dr. Anna Banerji, a global health specialist whose work has focused on vulnerable children, there are many reasons why certain groups may be hesitant to participate in public health interventions, from misinformation and language barriers to financial constraints that make even getting there a struggle. “Certain populations who have been discriminated against or even experimented on may be hesitant to participate, with good reason,” she says.
Meanwhile, back in B.C., Mount Pleasant Neighbourhood House in East Vancouver hosts a community kitchen for seniors and elders from the area’s 2SLGBTQIA+ community.
Held in partnership with Saige, a food bank and safe space for two spirit, trans and gender diverse folks, it’s an evening dedicated to food and fellowship. The event might start with a healthy cooking lesson using produce from Saige’s own forest garden, followed by a shared meal.
This community kitchen is just one of many supported by the City of Vancouver, who regard these spaces as critical parts of the city’s infrastructure, a key pillar of their broader ‘Healthy City’ strategy that aims to ensure that everyone in the city – which has the some of the starkest income inequality in Canada – enjoys the highest possible levels of wellbeing.
In some cases, the municipal government funds and operates kitchens directly. More often, the City supports non-profit or faith-based groups running their own community kitchens through things like grants, in-kind access to city-owned kitchen space or guidance with design and permitting issues.
The programs showcase the rich diversity of the city itself. In the LunchLAB program, kids are mentored by chefs as they learn to prepare nutritious meals. There’s also Artists In The Kitchen, a pilot project running at the Kitsilano Community Centre where creatives and community members meet over food.
Whether aimed at newcomers, youth or communities that have historically faced marginalization and oppression, initiatives like these are helping to create equal access to healthcare. In a country like Canada, where background and social circumstances can deeply affect how people access care, closing these gaps is an important step toward making the system work better for everyone.
For example, “there is a wide gap between what non-Indigenous people [experience] compared to Indigenous people. I think if we knew the truth about how many people live in the remote communities, we would be shocked, and we would never accept [those] conditions for ourselves and our families,” says Dr. Banerji, who has worked for over two decades studying lower-respiratory tract infections among Inuit children, and whose work has resulted in new Canadian Pediatrics Society guidelines.
“I think we should look at the underserved communities and ask ourselves, would it be acceptable if I was in that position?”
