Canadian Medical Schools Addressing Francophone Minority Needs

Abstract

English and French are the two official languages in Canada. The French-speaking population is present all across Canada. The province of Quebec is the only province where French is spoken by the majority (85 percent). The French-speaking population living in a minority setting, however, totals more than one million with percentages that vary in provinces and territories from 1.9 to 33 percent of the total population respectively. In 2001, the Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada (AFMC) during a strategic planning session under the theme of social responsibility identified that the Francophone minority of Canada was a vulnerable population compared to their Anglophone counterparts. In general, access to health care in their mother tongue was limited or totally absent depending on where they lived. Even though at that time, no research had been done, it was thought that linguistic barriers had a negative impact on health care services and health outcomes. In 2015, Dr. Sarah Bowen demonstrated by means of an extensive literature review that linguistic barriers had a negative impact on: access to health care services, the experience and satisfaction of users, and, on the equity of services offered.