Access to Care and the Impact of Inequality Among Individuals with a History of Mental Illness

Using an Intersectionality framework, a secondary analysis of pre-existing data from the CURA2 Poverty and Social Inclusion study (Forchuk et al., 2010-2015) was used to explore the relationship between experiences of oppression and self-rated health among a cross-section of 293 community dwelling participants with a mental illness. Binary logistic regression was used to estimate the association between self-rated health and social identity (gender, ethnicity, education, homelessness, employment, disability); health care access was tested for both mediating and moderating effects. The final model explained between 18.9-25.2% of the variance in self-rated health; four independent variables made unique statistically significant contributions to the model (education, employment, disability, unmet health need). There were no significant 3-way or 2-way interactions. Findings highlight the impact of social identity in shaping health. Further research is needed to facilitate greater understanding of the underlying factors that contribute to health inequalities among individuals who suffer from a mental illness.

Name thesis:degree_name

M Sc

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Nursing

Grantor dc:publisher

The University of Western Ontario

Year dc:date.issued

2016

Author dc:creator

• Atyeo, Heather

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Dr.Cheryl Forchuk

• Mental health
• inequality
• Intersectionality
• axes of oppression
• access to care

Language dc:language.iso

en_ca

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14721/33518

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:uwo.scholaris.ca:20.500.14721/33518