Grant: Catalyst Grant: Moving Upstream - Structural Racism and Health Inequities

This project seeks to understand how the structural factors of laws and regulations shape opportunities to address the lack of access to culturally relevant foods for members of the African, Caribbean, and Black community living in long-term care homes. Offering food that matches the cultural background of members of this community is complex because the proportion of African, Caribbean, and Black community members in a long-term care home is often small and so a culturally appropriate diet is not a top priority. Yet, we know that these populations across Canada are at high risk for poor health outcomes in long-term care, including for dementia and diseases that are linked to diet, like diabetes and heart problems. Elderly people often prefer familiar foods that they ate before entering long-term care. Lack of these preferred foods can increase their risk of poor nutrition and dehydration. It is important for long-term care homes to have a plan that includes culturally relevant food as part of equity-focused, person-centered care. However, there are legislative, regulatory, financial, and food safety considerations that can both help and hinder what can be done to ensure that African, Caribbean, and Black people can see themselves, their history, and their culture reflected in the foods being offered to them in their long-term care home. This project brings together researchers and policymakers to identify how policies shape how we think about the food provided in long-term care and how these policies reflect, reinforce, or challenge intersecting systemic inequalities such as sexism, racism, and ageism. This project will lay the groundwork needed to think about new and creative ways for long-term care homes to better serve their African, Caribbean, and Black residents in hopes of reducing the risk of poor health outcomes and creating more equal opportunities for good nutrition and healthy aging.