Francophones living with HIV/AIDS in Ontario: The unknown reality of an invisible cultural minority

Abstract

A strong body of evidence demonstrates that education, prevention and intervention, in the context of HIV/AIDS, should take ethno-racial diversity into account. The current research focuses on the cultural sensitivity manifested by AIDS service organisation ASO professionals towards Francophone minority persons living with HIV/AIDS Francophone PHAs in the two main urban centres of Ontario: Ottawa and Toronto. More specifically, this qualitative research will describe two different points of view: Francophone PHA service users n17 and ASO professionals n12. Data were collected from multiple focus groups and analysed using a phenomenological methodology. The analysis revealed that an important difference exists in the perceptions of language as an integral part of ethno-racial diversity. For ASO professionals, language is perceived as a simple tool of communication. For Francophones living with HIV/AIDS, however, language is perceived as a way to convey sensitivity to their cultural reality and a full recognition of their Canadian citizenship. This research showed that cultural sensitivity should include a linguistic aspect when it comes to health-related services, especially in the context of an officially bilingual country.

Keywords:

• HIV/AIDS
• cultural minority context
• Francophones
• Ontario Canada
• cultural sensitivity