Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Social Work (MSW)

Department

Social Work

Faculty/School

Lyle S. Hallman Faculty of Social Work

First Advisor

Dr. Michelle Skop

Advisor Role

Thesis Supervisor

Second Advisor

Dr. Ginette Lafrenière

Advisor Role

Thesis Committee Member

Third Advisor

Dr. Bruce Wallace

Advisor Role

Thesis Committee Member

Abstract

This social work study explores the experiences of hospital care amongst street-involved (SI) youth. Given that SI youth are at a higher risk for health-related harms and experience significant barriers to health care services, they are at an increased likelihood of hospitalization. Yet, inadequate health care support for SI youth remains a critical problem in Canada. While hospital care amongst adult homeless populations has been well studied interdisciplinary, there is a scarcity of research investigating the hospital care experiences amongst SI youth. The aim of this qualitative, arts-based study was to explore how street-life contributes to hospitalization, how SI youth experience and perceive hospital care, and what solutions SI youth had for higher quality health care.

Guided by anti-oppressive practice and health equity theoretical frameworks, this study situated participants as co-producers of knowledge through the process of body-map storytelling (BMST), an arts-based method of representing experience through life-sized self-portraits. Six youth, who identified as clients of a non-profit organization in Guelph Ontario, participated in the study. Participants were invited to share their stories both visually and verbally through in-depth, one-on-one art-making sessions and interviews with the researcher. Reflexive thematic analysis was used to interpret patterned meanings produced in both visual and verbal data. Ten themes were identified, fitting within four thematic categories related to the research questions: (1) participant experiences of how street life contributes to hospitalization; (2) participant experiences and perceptions of hospital care; (3) participant solutions for higher quality care based on their lived experiences; and (4) participant experiences of BMST.

The findings shed light on how SI youth are at a high risk for serious health consequences requiring hospital care. Findings indicate that hospital systems in Ontario continue to perpetuate oppression and inequity through inadequate delivery of care. Study participants offered solutions calling for equitable, effective, and timely care delivered by hospital staff who are skilled, knowledgeable, and compassionate. These solutions map well onto Health Quality Ontario’s framework for quality health care in Ontario. Findings also suggest that application of EQUIP health care’s Equity Oriented Health Care in hospital settings for SI youth would serve as an appropriate model of care, enabling service providers to deliver care that is trauma and violence-informed, culturally safe care/anti-racist, and harm reduction/substance use health focused.

This study generates knowledge about how visual research methodologies can help empower participants by engaging them in the research process. This study encourages researchers to share their lived experience as a means of destigmatizing such experiences and minimizing power disparities between researchers and participants. This study also fills a gap in the literature by generating knowledge about what high quality and equity informed health care in hospital settings might look like for SI youth.

Convocation Year

2024

Convocation Season

Fall

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Available for download on Monday, February 24, 2025

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