Using community participatory action - research (CPAR) in immigrant community health promotion: Ideas for chronic disease and mental health prevention

The burden of Mental Health (MH) issues and Chronic Diseases (CD) in immigrant and minority communities in Canada and Australia is a large and growing problem. It is clear from literature that the burden of MH and CD increases significantly as a result of the settlement and integration processes. It is also clear that in addition to the burden of CDs and MH, immigrants encounter broader determinants of CDs and MH mediated by contextual issues such as socio-economic isolation, hostile healthcare environments, culturally incompetent health care provision, and lack of access to health information. Research in the area also indicates that mainstream healthcare regimes have difficulty reaching out to these communities.  This paper proposes an innovative research design utilizing a Community Participatory Action Research (CPAR) approach to address issues of access and engagement with the community.   Drawing from a two research projects in Canada and Australia as case studies, the paper argues that CPAR not only assists in the identification of MH and CD risk factors and health promotion knowledge transfer, but also acts as an intervention for possible community actions. The paper takes an applied approach and emphasizes the need for community involvement in the design, implementation and dissemination phases of health promotion research projects.