Research

Delivering equitable long-term care (LTC) for Toronto’s diverse population is an emerging issue in the GTA with long wait lists across the region. Your ethnicity, your income, and where you live matters when it comes to not just waiting for services, but also quality of care.

It is a time of opportunity for supportive housing in Ontario. Housing and homelessness are main pillars in the government’s poverty reduction strategy. This is crucial because housing is a large factor in the social determinants of health. Whether someone’s housing is affordable, in good repair, or has the right supports or not has a big impact on health.

Each year over 80,000 new permanent residents (PRs) arrive in Ontario, Canada and are required to wait for three months before they are eligible to receive publicly funded health care through the Ontario Health Insurance Program (OHIP). This work addresses the gap in the literature by providing an overview of existing evidence on the health status and health care experiences of being in the three-month wait. It also identifies opportunities for research and policy regarding the three-month wait.

Accessing healthy food in the GTA is an equity issue. While some people can easily get health, nutritious food others cannot. The availability of these healthy foods vary by neighbourhood and many neighbourhoods don’t support a healthy food environment. With unequal access and availability, food is an equity issue.