Grant: Operating Grant

Over half of the Aboriginal people in Canada now live in cities. The number of Aboriginal people living in cities is growing rapidly. We don't have good systems in place to understand the specific health needs of Aboriginal people living in cities. This is a big problem for planners and health workers who want to make sure that urban health and social services meet the needs of all people in cities, including Aboriginal people. In this study we will work in partnership with Aboriginal organizations and city health planners to build a good set of information regarding the health of Aboriginal people living in the city of Toronto. We will do this using a new way of finding Aboriginal people called respondent driven sampling. Once we find a group of Aboriginal adults, youth and children, we will interview them and ask permission to look for their health care usage records as a group in the existing system of health information (where it is currently hidden). Once we have organized the results of the survey interviews and health care usage records we will work with Aboriginal organizations and city health planners to put this information to use in the planning of health services.