Access and utilization of health services by British Columbia's rural Aboriginal population

To provide a picture of the access and use of health services by Aboriginal British Columbians living in both reserve and off-reserve communities.

This project represents a collaborative effort between the University of British Columbia and multiple Aboriginal community partners. Between June and November 2003, 267 face-to-face interviews were conducted with Aboriginal persons in seven rural community organizations across the province.

This paper reports on the results of a survey of 267 Aboriginal clients. It was found that a substantial number of survey respondents accessed health services provided by an Aboriginal person. Although most respondents felt that services were available, they also identified a number of concerns. These revolved around the need to travel for services, as well as a lack of access to more specialized services. A number of self-reported barriers to service were also identified. These findings have several policy implications and will be useful to service planners.

Several questions for additional research were identified including the need to establish an inventory of service problem areas and investigating service and benefit policy and community awareness issues.

This paper provides policy makers with knowledge on the rural Aboriginal population, a population that has faced long standing problems in accessing appropriate health services.