Sustainable Human Resource Management of Health Care Personnel Working in Minority Language Contexts | Comparative phase, Laurentians and Outaouais regions

This project is integrated into another larger one aimed at responding to strategic issues of human resource management (HRM) faced by our health systems serving English-speaking communities and other cultural minorities in Quebec, but outside the Montreal area. Its initial phase takes place in Quebec at Jeffery Hale St. Brigid's Hospital (JHSB; financing obtained from MITACS and pending ethics approval from the CIUSSS de la Capital-Nationale). The present request aims to finance the comparative phase for two regions west of Quebec: the Laurentians and Outaouais. First, the project aims to comparatively report the current endowment processes of bilingual personnel (recruitment, selection, onboarding, and integration) for certain employment categories that are in high demand in Quebec, which include nurses.

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Outputs:

• Paquet-Martel, Racin, & Feillou. (May, 2023). La GRH durable pour l’amélioration de la fidélisation et le bien-être des travailleurs, des résidents et de leurs proches dans les établissements regroupés au CIUSSSCN [Oral presentation]. Congrès de l’ACFAS, HEC Montréal

• Racine et Dioh. (June, 2023). Attraction et rétention du personnel bilingue dans les établissements de santé québécois situés en région : résultats préliminaires d’une étude comparative [Oral presentation]. 2e Congrès international de l’ÉDIQ / 19e Congrès de l’ARIC (Association internationale pour la recherche interculturelle)

• Gestion des ressources humaines (GRH) durable du personnel du milieu de la santé œuvrant en contexte linguistique minoritaire. Page présentant le projet de recherche dans son ensemble, y compris le présent projet. Sur la plate-forme web du Centre d’expertise sur l’adaptation aux communautés d’expression anglaise en santé et services sociaux (ACESS)

A Synthesis of Evidence of The Unique Psychosocial Challenges Faced By Quebec’s English Speaking Black Communities During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The McGill Human Motivation Lab and the Black Community Resource Center (BCRC) have collaborated on 8 research studies over the last two years to examine the resilience of Quebec English-speaking Black communities in the face of the greatest public health crisis in a century. Our results uncovered numerous important themes, such as how involvement in the BLM movement allowed Black young adults to recover from the social isolation imposed by the pandemic, how it was particularly Black women who assumed leadership roles despite having been especially burdened by the pandemic, and how social support from both family and friends were importantly related to young adults’ psychological adjustment. More recently, with funding provided by the Health Care Access for Linguistic Minorities Network, we conducted studies that compared members of Quebec’s English and French-speaking Black communities and found significant group differences in important real-life outcomes such as experiences of discrimination, barriers to physical and mental health care, and hesitancy regarding vaccination for the COVID-19 virus.

Across all studies, English-speaking Black communities struggled more than French-speaking Black communities. We propose to synthesize these findings into a single cohesive knowledge translation effort that can be used to prepare workshops, presentations, technical reports, publications, web-based tools, school curricula, and webinars. Our partnership with the BCRC will support the development of these educational and community-building events. Highlighting the unique challenges of English-speaking Black communities is critically important as this community faces a Quebec government that intends to use the not-withstanding clause to pass laws that will restrict English language rights in many spheres of Quebec life. Such language restrictions are likely to have devastating impacts on the health and vitality of English-speaking Black communities. These laws will also weaken the natural alliance that exists between the English and French-speaking Black communities. The purpose of this knowledge translation will be to increase community awareness of unique barriers of accessing health care and social services faced by Quebec’s English-speaking Black communities. It will contribute to improving access to resources and evidence-based information on the status and needs of the English-speaking Black communities.

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Outcomes:

• Lafreniere, B., Audet, É. C., Kachanoff, F., Christophe, N. K., Holding, A. C., Janusauskas, L., & Koestner, R. (2023). Gender differences in perceived racism threat and activism during the Black Lives Matter social justice movement for Black young adults. Journal of community psychology, 51(7), 2741–2757. https://doi.org/10.1002/jcop.23043

• Nweze, N., Davids, J., Fang, X., Holding, A., & Koestner, R. (2023). The Impact of Language on the Mental Health of Black Quebecers. Journal of racial and ethnic health disparities, 10(5), 2327–2337. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40615-022-01412-5

• Audet, É. C., Thai, H., Holding, A. C., Davids, J., Fang, X., & Koestner, R. (2023). The depth of stories: How Black young adults' disclosure of high arousal negative affect in narratives about the COVID-19 pandemic and the BLM protests improved adjustment over the year 2020. Journal of community psychology, 51(4), 1504–1517. https://doi.org/10.1002/jcop.22929

CKOL: Documentation on Health and Social Services in English-Speaking Quebec

The Community Knowledge Open Library (CKOL), created by the Quebec English-Speaking Communities Research Network (QUESCREN), Concordia University, is a growing online repository of documents from groups and stakeholders serving and working with English-speaking communities in Quebec. The objective of the current project for which we are seeking funding is to add material related to health and social services in English-speaking Quebec to the existing CKOL database.

This material will be gathered from existing project partners, and we will establish new partnerships with members of the Community Health and Social Services Network (CHSSN), from whom we will also start obtaining CKOL material. Integrating new documents into this user-friendly one-stop database will increase access to knowledge through an enriched CKOL database. This will make it easier for stakeholders to meet the health care and social service needs of English speakers in Quebec.

Culturally Adapted Education Materials for Families of English-Speaking Minority Patients with Early Psychosis

Psychosis is a serious mental illness that usually begins in adolescence or young adulthood and is characterized by distressing symptoms like hallucinations and paranoia. Psychosis ranks in the top 3 most disabling conditions worldwide. Educating the families of affected individuals is known to make patients feel better, yet many family members of minority patients don’t participate in the education sessions that are offered. Reasons for the lack of participation include not trusting medical authorities and not feeling comfortable to bring up cultural issues like religion, spirituality, and racism. There have been no early psychosis programs that have addressed these problems, so the current study is doing just that.

Over the last two years, researchers have met with leaders and members of English-speaking minority communities, families of English-speaking minority patients with psychosis, patients, and clinicians to understand what changes are needed to make family education about psychosis more acceptable and helpful to people of diverse backgrounds. While it is true that research efforts to date have produced a large and growing body of data, these findings and results need to be prepared for presentation to communities and families. Our knowledge translation activities will include writing plain language summaries of meetings with community and family members to explain what kinds of topics and discussions will facilitate effective care for their loved ones with early psychosis and better collaboration with the clinical team. We will also present statistical findings in a non-threatening and easy-to-access format that will be easy for everyone to understand.

The potential impact of these activities will give community and family members a greater understanding of psychosis, will improve their participation in education seminars, and will contribute to healthier and happier lives of young people with early psychosis.

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Outputs:

• Jarvis, E. G., Desmarais, C., Lang, E., Zimanyi, L., & Leroux-Goyet, S. (March 2023). Family Psychoeducation series [Virtual workshop].

• Khan, S. (March 2023). Looking after our and our Youth's Mental Health. A presentation on caring for our mind, body, and spirit [Presentation]. Amal Center for Women, Montreal, Canada.

• Paquin, V., Pow, R. (March 2023). Training of workers on first episode psychosis L’Annexe is a community organization engaged in the socialization of multicultural young adults with intersectional vulnerabilities [Presentation]. L’Annexe – Ometz Drop-in centre for young adults 16-35, Montreal, Canada.

• Unknown. (Februrary 2023). Exploring the Mental Health Stigma Within the Black Community [Virtual event].

Disseminate, promote, mobilize: Planning of knowledge transfer activities for English speakers in long-term care facilities.

As part of an action research process initiated with our partner, the CHSLD St Brigid's Home (SBH), a workshop was organized on November 30 and December 1, 2021, and about forty participants from the residential center (i.e., users and their representatives, caregivers, employees, managers) actively participated. This workshop, brought together all stakeholders to reflect on innovative models of long-term care that could promote the sustainable health of workers, residents and their families. This initiative was a great success and laid a solid foundation for the continuation of the research activities planned with our partner. Following this workshop, a written summary (in French) will be made available, as well as the content of the four conferences held during the first half-day (also in French).

As this activity was held in French, through this funding application, we aim to reach the English-speaking population through knowledge transfer and appropriation initiatives. Given the mission and values of Jeffery Hale Saint Brigid's Hospital, we believe it is essential to reach out to English-speaking participants at SBH, as well as to the English-speaking community served in Quebec City and more broadly in Quebec. This will ensure that the language preferences of the end-users are respected, but more importantly, that they are truly involved in the entire process.

More specifically, the funds from this program will be used to translate the workshop summary from French to English, to prepare written summaries of the four conferences presented the first day, and to accommodate a complementary "world café" type of activity in which English-speaking people will be able to participate more actively, thanks to live interpretation services. This will allow, in the end, to enrich the synthesis already written and produce a new version of it. The results thus disseminated in both official languages will facilitate a greater appropriation of knowledge by all stakeholders in this field, regardless of the language in which they express themselves.

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Outputs:

• Feillou, I., Jauvin, N. (January, 2023). Sustainable Health Development in CHSLDs, an action-research initiative in partnership with CHSLD St Brigid's Home and Jefferey Hale Partners [Invited presentation]. CHSSN, Québec, Canada.

• Feillou, I. (December, 2023). CHSLD: milieu de travail, milieu de vie, milieu de soins. Comment favoriser la santé durable des travailleurs, des résidents et de leurs proches? [Webinaire]. ASSTSAS.

• For more information on this project and to view some of its outcomes, please visit: https://centreexpertiseacess.com/en/sustainable-health-project/

Project extension | Assessment and Implementation of the MedComm Online Interpretation Platform into the Clinical Setting

One-year project extension for a previously funded project. See here.

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Outcomes:

• Unknown. (March, 2023). Role of Medical Students as Interpreters in Bridging Language Barriers in Healthcare Centers: A Scoping Review [Poster presentation]. 19th Annual Crossroads Interdisciplinary Health Research Conference.

Project extension | Making the switch to remote interpreting

One-year project extension for a previously funded project.

Project Extension | Language minorities and the risk of depression among individuals suffering from a chronic disease: a retrospective study of the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging

One-year project extension for a previously funded project. See here.

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Outcomes:

• Farid, D., Li, P., Dasgupta, K., & Rahme, E. (2022). Determinants of loss to follow-up in the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging: a retrospective cohort study. Journal of epidemiology and community health, 76(12), 1011–1018. https://doi.org/10.1136/jech-2022-219307

• Farid, D., Li, P., Dasgupta, K., & Rahme, E. (2022). Determinants of loss to follow-up in the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging: a retrospective cohort study. Journal of epidemiology and community health, 76(12), 1011–1018. https://doi.org/10.1136/jech-2022-219307

• Farid, D., Li, P., Da Costa, D., Afif, W., Szabo, J., Dasgupta, K., & Rahme, E. (2020). Undiagnosed depression, persistent depressive symptoms and seeking mental health care: analysis of immigrant and non-immigrant participants of the Canadian Longitudinal Study of Aging. Epidemiology and psychiatric sciences, 29, e158. https://doi.org/10.1017/S2045796020000670

Project Extension | Are language and motivational barriers limiting healthcare access for Black young adults during the COVID-19 pandemic?

One-year extension of a previously funded project. See here.

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Outcomes:

• Lafreniere, B., Audet, É. C., Kachanoff, F., Christophe, N. K., Holding, A. C., Janusauskas, L., & Koestner, R. (2023). Gender differences in perceived racism threat and activism during the Black Lives Matter social justice movement for Black young adults. Journal of community psychology, 51(7), 2741–2757. https://doi.org/10.1002/jcop.23043

• Nweze, N., Davids, J., Fang, X., Holding, A., & Koestner, R. (2023). The Impact of Language on the Mental Health of Black Quebecers. Journal of racial and ethnic health disparities, 10(5), 2327–2337. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40615-022-01412-5

• Audet, É.C., Leboeuf, J., Holding, A.C. et al. Better Together: Family and Peer Support for Black Young Adults During the COVID-19 Pandemic and the Black Lives Matter Movement. Trends in Psychology. 1-18, 688–705 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s43076-022-00157-8

• Audet, É. C., Thai, H., Holding, A. C., Davids, J., Fang, X., & Koestner, R. (2023). The depth of stories: How Black young adults' disclosure of high arousal negative affect in narratives about the COVID-19 pandemic and the BLM protests improved adjustment over the year 2020. Journal of community psychology, 51(4), 1504–1517. https://doi.org/10.1002/jcop.22929