Using Community Research to inform Health and Social Policy for Immigrant and Refugee Communities -...

Using Community Research to Inform Health and Social Policy for Immigrant

and Refugee Communities

Brenda RocheWellesley Institute

2

Wellesley Institute

Wellesley Institute conducts community based policy research that focuses on, and is grounded in, the social determinants of health

Our work includes:• Analysis of patterns and trends in the current body of evidence• Focused policy analysis• Community studies conducted in partnership with external groups and

agencies

| www.wellesleyinstitute.com

3

Community Research

We have a history of supporting community based research approaches

Over time we have moved more towards policy focused research

Research that is grounded in community has untapped potential to inform policy debates; it can provide timely and concrete evidence through local data

April 13, 2023 | www.wellesleyinstitute.com

4

Community Research

Community research has the ability to create real links between broad-based public health ‘evidence’ and ‘local knowledge’

Policy tools can help to unify data that is being gathered but is fragmented

Action oriented research can help pull together partners & to use their expertise to collect data that absent from public debate


5

Challenges

Community research has a chequered past; at times it has been viewed as too focused on capacity building and not on evidence

Projects can function in isolation, failing to connect work that is being done by other stakeholders

Community agencies are vital to this work, but face growing and competing demands in their daily work


6

Challenges

Data collection at the community level can seem disconnected from policy discussions and debates

How can we ensure that that data being gathered has relevance at the ground level and informs practice and shares knowledge?

The current research and policy climate includes a context with limited funding, can appear unreceptive to knowledge mobilization, and policy change


7

Health Equity Impact Assessments

A Health Equity Impact Assessment (HEIA) is a tool used to analyze a new program or policy’s potential impact on health, health disparities and health disadvantaged populations.

Collecting front-line information and data from health care professionals can help to assess whether there have been health effects


8

HEIA on the IFH Program

Canadian Doctors for Refugee Care worked with health care providers to track the impacts of changes to the IFH program through an online survey

Wellesley Institute used these data in a policy-oriented HEIA on the IFH program

The findings pointed to dramatic health impacts of the cuts to the IFH; from lack access to basic primary care to limited use of critical care, even in medical emergencies


9

HEIA on the IFH Program

A federal court later overturned the IFH cuts, citing in its judgment the growing evidence regionally, provincially & nationally

This research demonstrates some of the best ideas in bridging community and policy research; it was timely, relied on the expertise of community providers and made use of a tool that looked at concrete impacts of policy changes


10

Community based policy research

HEIA on the IFH program for refugees is a good illustration of where a simple tool can help to pull together data that providers are collecting

Sometimes community data is not being collected, but we know that policies are being shaped and revised without input from community members and their representatives


11

Migrant Workers Speak

With the Migrant Workers Alliance for Change (MWAC) we are looking at the health, employment and social impacts for workers who are here under the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP)

There are significant changes taking place with the TFWP, but limited information from the workers themselves

As policies relevant to migrant workers under the TFWP are being revised, insights from workers themselves is urgently needed


12


Project emphasizes an action research approach; collaborative decision making process between team members from MWAC and the Wellesley Institute

This work relies on the active collaboration of community partners in gathering local data

Workers are asked to take part in surveys, individual interviews and focus groups

Currently we are in the middle of data collection


13


This type of research has great potential to bring migrant workers’ perspectives to the forefront of current discussions on the TFWP

The research depends on on community partners sharing their expertise, and working in a collaborative way

In part this relies on frank discussions from the start about what community partners hope to achieve, and what are institutional needs


14

Issues Moving Forward

We need to create opportunities for different forms of community research that contribute to policy discussion and debate.

How can we ensure that this work asserts the value of local data, and contributes to policy analysis in concrete and defendable ways?

In linking community and policy research how can we ensure knowledge mobilization for front line practice does not get overlooked?


15

Value Moving Forward

Partnership approaches are critical to producing community research that can inform policy discussions and debates- Allows us to work across communities - We can draw on different expertise and tools to gather concrete and

meaningful data

Community-generated evidence is critical in cases where health and social policy may be driven more by ideology than by evidence. The evidence may not be perfect, but it tells a story that can challenge the credibility of policies that are not evidence-based


16

Thank you!

For more information on the Wellesley Institutewww.wellesleyinstitute.com


http://www.wellesleyinstitute.com/

Date post:	23-Jun-2015
Category:	Government & Nonprofit
Upload:	ocasiconference
View:	83 times
Download:	0 times

Using Community Research to inform Health and Social Policy for Immigrant and Refugee Communities -...

Government & Nonprofit