Practitioner Perspectives on Linguistic Barriers in Access to Health Care for English-Speaking Minorities in Quebec

I propose to conduct a qualitative systematic review examining barriers that healthcare providers experience in providing services to linguistic minorities. In particular, the present study is designed to determine what kind of support healthcare professionals need to provide service to Anglophones in French-speaking Quebec.

Language barriers are increasingly recognized as a serious concern that creates disparities in access to health and social services (Terui, 2017). These inequalities may be reflected in access to services and healthcare delivery (Woloshin et al., 1997), as well as in low “quality of care and provider-patient relationship” (Terui, 2017, p .215). In addition, recent evidence suggests that linguistic minorities may face communication anxiety while anticipating doctor’s appointments (Zhao et al., 2021) and experience tension during appointments and low confidence in received care during (De Moissac & Bowen, 2019). 

This research project will focus on the language barriers that occur during interactions between healthcare providers and Anglophones (English speakers) in Quebec. The goal of the project is to propose feasible solutions to enhance access to health and social services in Quebec for English minority language speakers.