RESPCCT Regional Recruitment Coordinators Resources

What is Health Equity?

Health Equity means that ALL members of the community have opportunities to be healthy and receive quality care that is fair and appropriate to their needs, no matter where they live, what they have or who they are (Health Quality Ontario, 2018).

Equity doesn’t mean Equality

Equality means that everyone is treated the same regardless of their needs or circumstances. However, treating everyone equally doesn’t mean that every person has the same opportunities to maintain optimal health.

Equity takes into consideration that some groups in our community face additional obstacles and barriers and require more supports to achieve the same level of health as others. Barriers may include low income, low literacy skills, limited access to healthy food, unsafe housing or limited access to reliable transportation.

In order to improve health and well-being for all people, we must first ensure everyone has the basics to be healthy. Thinking that the same approach will work universally to improve health is assuming everyone has those basics. Equity involves trying to understand and give people what they need – so that people are able to reach higher levels of health and live full, healthy lives. Equality in contrast, aims to ensure that everyone gets the same things.

Ontario Health Quality Ontario. (2018). Health quality Ontario’s health equity plan. Toronto, Ontario. Retrieved at http://www.hqontario.ca/portals/0/documents/health-quality/health_equity_plan_report_en.pdf

Equity bicycle graphic, English, green background.

Required:

TCPS 2: CORE (Course on Research Ethics)

The online tutorial TCPS 2: CORE (Course on Research Ethics) is an introduction to the 2nd edition of the Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans (TCPS 2). It consists of eight modules focusing on the guidance in TCPS 2 that is applicable to all research regardless of discipline or methodology.

Required sections:

  • CIHR
  • Reasonable expectations of privacy
  • TCPS
  • Vulnerable circumstances

Research Involving First Nations, Inuit & Métis Peoples of Canada

Ensuring Ethical Conduct of Patient-Oriented Research: A Guide for Researchers (pages 5-9)

Reproductive Justice Briefing Book: A primer on Reproductive Justice and Social Change (pages 4-6, 16-20, 22-25)

Structures & Self: Advancing Equity and Justice in Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare

Additional Resources:

Indigenous Birth in Canada: Reconciliation and Reproductive Justice in the Settler State

Canadian Indigenous Women’s Perspectives of Maternal Health and Health Care Services: A Systematic Review

Patient-led decision making: Measuring autonomy and respect in Canadian maternity care

To Prevent Women from Dying in Childbirth, First Stop Blaming Them

Medical Students’ Attitudes towards Overweight and Obesity

Pregnancy among women with physical disabilities: Unmet needs and recommendations on navigating pregnancy

Marginalized mothers: Lesbian women negotiating heteronormative healthcare services

Immigrant women’s experiences of maternity-care services in Canada: a systematic review using a narrative synthesis

Queering Reproductive Justice: A Toolkit

The Giving Voice to Mothers study: inequity and mistreatment during pregnancy and childbirth in the United States

Strategy for Patient-Oriented Research

Patient engagement in Canada: a scoping review of the ‘how’ and ‘what’ of patient engagement in health research

Transforming our Response: Practical Tips on Providing Trauma Informed, Culturally Safe Care for First Nations, Inuit and Métis Women, Girls and Gender-Diverse People

Bias:

Project Implicit (IAT Tests)

Unconscious (Implicit) Bias and Health Disparities: Where Do We Go from Here?