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

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
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
Marginalized mothers: Lesbian women negotiating heteronormative healthcare services
Queering Reproductive Justice: A Toolkit
Strategy for Patient-Oriented Research
Bias:
Unconscious (Implicit) Bias and Health Disparities: Where Do We Go from Here?