Program to improve health care for marginalized populations puts Black physicians in racialized communities

Open this photo in gallery: Marie Claud Felicien, Director of Primary Health Care Services for Women’s Health in Women’s Hands, on Mar 19. WHIWH provides healthcare services for racialized women in Toronto, and surrounding municipalities.Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail Marie Claud Felicien immigrated to Canada from St. Lucia as a teenager in 2000. As newcomers not yet covered by public health insurance, her family avoided simple visits to the doctor, because they were forced to pay $60 to $70 out-of-pocket for appointments, Ms. Felicien said. No one suffered a major health crisis during this time, but worry over incurring medical expenses added to her family’s stress. That experience informed how Ms. Felicien treated her patients when she worked as nurse and now shapes the ethos at Women’s Health in Women’s Hands (WHIWH), a community health centre for racialized women in Toronto, where she serves as director of primary health care services. “Many people don’t realize that newcomers have to pay out-of-pocket for medical services until they are covered by the Ontario Health Insurance Plan,” Ms. Felicien said. Like her and her family, a majority of the clients that Ms. Felicien serves at WHIWH are Black women from the Caribbean or...