This years BSA medical sociology conference will take place at Lancaster University. Three members of our team will be presenting qualitative data from the CICADA study.
We have three presentation sessions planned. Professor Rivas will be presenting data on changes in health and social support experiences for disabled people from minoritised groups over the last three years. Amanda Moore will be focusing on presentation of the participatory methods employed by the CICADA study. Kusha Anand will focus on discussion of the experience of undocumented migrants. The abstracts from these sessions can be found below.
Changes in health and social support experiences for disabled people from minoritised ethnic groups over the last three years: findings from the CICADA study
Rivas C, Moore A, Anand K
Disabled people from minoritised ethnic groups have been more likely than other groups to face issues accessing support and services for pre-existing conditions during the pandemic and to die from COVID-19. This results from the historical context of multiple structural, contextual and individual discriminatory social disadvantages, which the pandemic increased. The CICADA study has explored the pandemic experiences with and of disabled people from minoritised ethnic groups through an intersectional lens. The aim was to develop solutions and recommendations aimed at reducing inequities, particularly in terms of health and social care and wellbeing. We used a mixed-methods approach including a three-wave survey (5,000 respondents), and semi-structured qualitative interviews (over 250) with follow-up participatory workshops and citizen science support. In this talk we will consider the key findings across and between four broad ethnic groups (Central and East European, South Asian, African and Arab) and white British experiences, and across and between six different disability impacts (mental functioning, mobility, stamina/fatigue, sensory impairment, developmental/intellectual and food-related). Themes include the use of doctors ‘back home’, using technology in multiple ways, and the roles of community and family networks. Importantly, this is a longitudinal study so the talk will also consider changes through the last three years and their implications for services and communities.
Working with a range of under-served disability and migrant communities and the iterative development of truly inclusive participatory methods as part of the CICADA study
Moore A, Anand K, Redclift V, Rivas C,
The CICADA study has explored the impact of the last three years on health conditions, service access, social support and mental well-being for people from minoritised ethnic groups with disabilities living in the UK. One important component of this study is the use of participatory methods to include and engage diverse migrants of different migration status and different types of disability in the interviews and workshops, as participants and as co-researchers. Specifically, we deployed a range of assets-based participatory qualitative methods. These successfully incorporated members of our focal communities as lay co-researchers, and participants as the co-designers of pragmatic interventions to improve their health and wellbeing. Our approach enabled the collection of rich data, including from groups often excluded from health research, such as disabled migrants arriving in the UK since the pandemic or without documents. Data show the extent, diversity and intersecting nature of various determinants of health and inequalities, discrimination (ableism, disablism, racism) and also successful coping strategies used. This talk will however focus not on our findings but on the learning process we went through as we refined our methods iteratively in response to and with the communities we sought to engage. The end result of our experiences is a toolkit designed to help future researchers to engage productively with a range of vulnerable communities. We intend this to contribute to enhanced social, health and wellbeing outcomes for these communities.