The prevalence of multicultural groups receiving in-home service from three community agencies in southern Ontario: implications for cultural sensitivity training.

This survey assessed the ethnocultural proportion of clients (largely seniors) receiving services from three home care health agencies in Southern Ontario. Providers from the three agencies were asked to recall clients served in the previous two weeks and to describe them in terms of race, language, sex, age and disability status. White, English-speaking clients comprised 88.3% of the sample (N = 931). The remaining 11.7% of clients were white, non-English-speaking (7.8%), visible minority (2.8%), francophone (0.77%), indigenous (0.22%) and Hispanic (0.11%). Sixty-three percent of clients were women and 34% men. The majority (66.6%) of clients were over 65 years. The 11.7% of clients who were identified as multicultural in three home care agencies are an under-representation of the multicultural mix of population in the Southern Ontario region, which is 24%. Some recommendations have been offered for a system for ethnocultural data collection for the region and provision of cultural sensitivity training programs to enhance staff knowledge and skills.