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isn't it time we had data on the health of bipoc in canada?
'we can’t count on a time when the government is going to step in and take care of the communities that it exploits,' says first nation policy researcher.
ten per cent of canadians say they have been treated differently by health-care providers because of their race: mental health index
for more than thirty-five per cent, past experiences affected their willingness to get care.
the mental health index is a monthly report released by lifeworks, based on a representative online survey of 3,000 people living in canada, who are working or have worked in canada in the past six months.
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ten per cent of respondents to the lifeworks november mental health index say they have experienced being treated differently by their health-care provider because of their race. nine per cent of respondents also said they have been treated differently because of their ethnicity.
the index is a monthly report released by lifeworks, part of telus health. data is based on a representative online survey of 3,000 people living in canada, who are working or have worked in canada in the past six months.
canadians who identify as racialized were three times more likely to report they are treated differently by their doctors than canadians who identify as white. a further 12 per cent of respondents said they were unsure if they had been treated differently because of their race or ethnicity.
willingness to get care is impacted by past treatment
past experiences with health-care providers impacted respondent’s willingness to seek help. more than thirty-five per cent of respondents agreed that “their willingness to get care is impacted because of how they have been treated by a health-care professional because of their race.”
recognizing the experiences of bipoc communities in the canadian health-care system continues to be a work in progress for provincial health bodies. in spring 2020, for example, race-based health statistics in ontario were only collected when specific demographic were clearly at risk. the ontario government would later add questions pertaining to race and ethnicity to covid-19 patient questionnaires, after 192 organizations signed onto a letter directed to the ontario government asking for this data, explaining “we cannot address what we cannot measure.”
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seventy four per cent of respondents also said they feel their workplace values diversity, however, respondents who identified as having a disability were twice as likely to say their organization does not value diversity.
responses continued to differ across lived experiences. canadians who identified as having a disability were roughly twice as likely to report they cannot be themselves at work, that their ideas are not valued in the workplace and that they have been on the receiving end of negative comments from their managers or co-workers.
canadian mental health in two month decline
canadians are still feeling the strain, reporting a decline in mental health for the second month in a row. the overall mental health score was 64.3 in november, down from 64.9 in october and 65.1 in september. “optimal” mental health is defined as anywhere from 80 to 100 points, while “distressed” is from zero to 49 points
mental health sub-scores also continued to decline this month, with anxiety, isolation, and work productivity ranking as lowest scores for the seventh consecutive month. the lone outlier in november was optimism, which ticked up 0.1 points.
both men and women’s mental health scores were lower in november than in october. women continued to have lower scores this month than men (62.1 for women versus 66.6 for men), as they have since the start of the index.
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if previous trends are any indication, the december index won’t be much better. overall mental health scores continued to dip december in both 2021 and 2020, before slowly rising in the new year. the lowest rating reported was in december 2020, at 62.9 points.
emma jones is a multimedia editor with healthing. you can reach her at emjones@postmedia.com or on instagram and twitter @jonesyjourn.
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