Structural facilitators and barriers to access to and continuity of french-language healthcare and social services in ontario’s champlain region

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to examine access to and continuity of French-language healthcare and social services in Ontario’s Champlain region through an analytical framework that incorporates people seeking care, their caregivers and the linguistic component of care into a health and social service system bounded by community, organizational, political and symbolic structures. Methods: Experiences of French-speaking seniors seeking care and those of health and social service providers and managers from two qualitative exploratory studies are used to describe trajectories through the system. Results: Participants exposed how, together with community vitality, issues within each of the system’s symbolic, political or regulatory and organizational structures influence these trajectories. Conclusions: To meet the needs of francophone seniors, additional work is needed to increase French-language services coordination within the organizational, regulatory and policy structures of the health and social service system.