Supporting recent immigrants in their effort to access information on health and health-related services: The case of 211 Toronto

Canada, as most high-income countries, is being dramatically reshaped by immigration. The Canadian health care system will have to undergo profound changes to respond to the demands and expectations of newcomers. As it is a publicly funded system providing access to services on the basis of needs, not ability to pay, the challenges it faces represent a particularly interesting case study.

Access to high quality information is essential for immigrants struggling to use a largely unknown system. However, newcomers might face barriers even when accessing information services. A study was recently completed to understand whether the same factors limiting immigrants' access to health care resources might also be responsible for limited access to information services designed to support newcomers.

The study focused on 211 Toronto – an information service that could be considered in many ways as ‘ideal'. 211 Toronto, in fact, employs highly trained counsellors who have access to a remarkably comprehensive database of information on health, social, and government services and provide free support to users, 24/7, in over 100 languages. The research project adopted a mixed quantitative-qualitative approach to: 1) obtain a snapshot of users, understanding how representative they are of Toronto's general population; 2) assess service effectiveness and users' satisfaction; and 3) map the ‘information-seeking pathways' followed by recent immigrants struggling to access and navigate the health care system. This paper presents and discusses the study results exploring their implications in the design and management of information services aimed at supporting newcomers in increasingly multicultural high-income countries.