2022/11/03 by Wendy Pringle, Sukhmeet Singh Sachal, Gurvir Singh Dhutt +3 · 16 citations
Health Professions · Medicine · Nursing · Psychology · Social Sciences · #Community engagement #Community health #Cultural Competency in Health Care #Focus group #Health equity #Interpreting and Communication in Healthcare #Medicine #Migration, Health and Trauma #Nursing #Outreach #Political science #Public health #Public relations #Sociology
paper · pdf · doi:10.17269/s41997-022-00699-5
published in Canadian Journal of Public Health 113(S1), 14-23 (Springer Science+Business Media)
crossref issued 2022/11/03 · crossref published 2022/11/03 · crossref published-online 2022/11/03 · openalex publication_date 2022/11/03 · crossref created 2022/11/03 · crossref published-print 2022/12/01 · crossref deposited 2022/12/24 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · crossref indexed 2026/07/29 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
OBJECTIVES: COVID-19 has posed significant challenges to those who endeavour to provide equitable public health information and services. We examine how community leaders, advocates, and public health communication specialists have approached community engagement among Asian immigrant and diaspora communities in British Columbia throughout the pandemic. METHODS: Qualitative interviews with 27 participants working with Asian communities in a healthcare, community service, or public health setting, inductively coded and analyzed following the culture-centred approach to health communication, which focuses on intersections of structure, culture, and agency. RESULTS: Participants detailed outreach efforts aimed at those who might not be reached by conventional public health communication strategies. Pre-existing structural barriers such as poverty, racial disparities, and inequitable employment conditions were cited as complicating Asian diaspora communities' experience of the pandemic. Such disparities exacerbated the challenges of language barriers, information overload, and rapidly shifting recommendations. Participants suggested building capacity within existing community service and public health outreach infrastructures, which were understood to be too lean to meet community needs, particularly in a pandemic setting. CONCLUSION: A greater emphasis on collaboration is key to the provision of health services and information for these demographic groups. Setting priorities according to community need, in direct collaboration with community representatives, and further integrating pre-existing bonds of trust within communities into public health communication and engagement strategies would facilitate the provision of more equitable health information and services. This mode of engagement forgoes the conventional focus on individual behaviour change, and focuses instead on fostering community connections. Such an approach harmonizes with community support work, strengthening the capacity of community members to secure health during public health emergencies.