Health of rural black women focus of study

A landmark study of the health of black women in rural Nova Scotia will conclude with the release of the results this week in a ceremony in Birchtown.

On the Margins: Understanding and Improving Black Women’s Health in Rural and Remote Nova Scotia Communities is a three-and-a-half-year research project led by Dr. Wanda Thomas Bernard Director of Dalhousie’s School of Social Work, and funded by CIHR. The project consisted of team of researchers, the majority of whom are of Black Canadian, who examined the degree to which (in) accessibility to health care services, facilities, and health care providers has had an impact on Black Nova Scotian women and their communities in rural and remote areas. More specifically, the background of the project centers on an investigation of health status, health care delivery and health services utilization among African Canadians residing in the towns and villages ranging along the south and west shores of the province – from Liverpool to Annapolis Royal.

The results will be announced at a media conference Thursday, March 29, at 12:30 PM, Birchtown Community Centre, hosted by the Black Loyalist Society.

Three African Nova Scotian facilitators working with the project have undertaken community consultations to inform the questions and methods of the study. In addition, they have completed in-depth, one-on-one interviews with 270 African Nova Scotian women living in Shelburne, Liverpool, Yarmouth, Weymouth, Digby and Annapolis counties and have analyzed this data.

The study’s findings indicate that African Nova Scotian women in this region face many of the same health and access challenges that confront others living in rural and remote locations. There are not enough doctors; there are not enough services. But the capacity of African Nova Scotian women to achieve and maintain health – their own and that of their loved ones – is seriously compromised by conditions of poverty, discrimination, racism and exclusion.