Newcomers Health in Brantford and the Counties of Brant, Haldimand and Norfolk: Perspectives of Newcomers and Service Providers

The Canadian government’s plan to support a balanced distribution of immigrants throughout the nation has contributed to newcomers’
dispersion to small town communities and rural areas. However, very little work has examined the health experiences of immigrants
settling in smaller urban and rural regions. Even less literature exists on the perspectives of service providers working
with newcomers in Canada’s urban–rural communities. This paper focuses on a part of a larger Community-based study on ‘Newcomer
Settlement and Integration in Education, Training, Employment, Health and Social Support’ in Brantford—a middle-sized urban/rural
region in Ontario, Canada—and discusses the findings in the health domain. Data were generated from 212 service providers
and 237 newcomers using both qualitative and quantitative research tools. Newcomers identified several barriers in accessing
mental and/or physical health services including lack of culturally appropriate services and discrimination. The striking
differences between newcomers’ and service providers’ responses to the survey questionnaires bring to light cultural variations
between the newcomers’ and the service providers’ perceptions of ‘health’. The findings reinforce the need for including newcomers
in developing more inclusive and culturally-appropriate health services and programs.