School of NursingFaculty of HealthYork University

F. Beryl Pilkington, RN; PhD

Biggest challenge re: advancing multicultural women’s health research?

Complexity of multicultural health issues combined with multiplicity of perspectives, interests, and stakeholdersHow to identify priorities for research?Priorities depend upon perspectives,

interests, power and politics

Complexity of Multicultural Women’s Health ‘Multicultural women’ and social determinants of health:

income and income distribution, education, unemployment and job security, employment and working conditions, early childhood development, food insecurity, housing, social exclusion, social safety net, health services, Aboriginal status, gender, race, disability (Mikkonen & Raphael, 2010)

Intersectionality*A perspective that seeks to “reveal the dynamics of power” that

lead to social inequality and health inequities (Havinsky & Christoffersen, 2008)

Social determinants tend to intersect, with compounding effects+

References* Hankivsky O, Christoffersen A. (2008). Intersectionality and the determinants of

health: A Canadian perspective. Critical Public Health,18, 271-283.+ Pilkington, F. B., Daiski, I. Lines, E., Bryant, T., Raphael, D., Dinca-Panaitescu, M., &

Dinca-Panaitescu, S. (2011). Type 2 diabetes in vulnerable populations: Community healthcare providers’ perspectives on health service needs and policy implications. Canadian Journal of Diabetes, 35(5), 503-511.

Inequity: A challenge to Multicultural Women’s Health Research?

Inequity: the fundamental problem to be addressed re: advancing multicultural women’s health

Is inequity also the biggest challenge re: advancing multicultural women’s health research?

Most important thing OMHARN could do to address this challenge? Complex challenges call for multi-faceted

approaches to solutionsOMHARN is already helping to address this

challenge through bringing together stakeholders in the field of multicultural healthCould research priorities be identified?Could OMHARN act as a “broker” for stakeholders

interested in working on a particular multicultural health challenge?

OMHRN could synthesize the large body of evidence that poverty reduction would be the single most effective strategy for improving the health of Ontarians (although, that may be ignored as an ‘inconvenient truth’)