The COVID-19 pandemic ushered in a need to reexamine the healthcare system and how minority groups fair during a public health crisis. Individuals experiencing disadvantage across multiple dimensions, such as through housing insecurity in addition to societal racism, endure crises differently, in ways that are not properly dealt with and treated. Current support services and data collection tools are not intersectional, and this prevents the development of appropriate and effective solutions.
Intersectionality is often unexplored in the realm of healthcare, to the detriment of individuals with needs that are more complex than the system tends to frame them to be. Population groups that identify with multiple groups, such as migrants, First Nations peoples, and those dealing with housing insecurity, are often ignored in healthcare, which traditionally seeks to categorize people for the means of effective and easy treatment. As a result, it fails patients and leaves them lacking quality care instead. This is especially the case in public health crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
The failure to adequately plan for the differing impacts of COVID-19 among and across different Australian populations enabled the virus to spread faster and wider. However, little is known about the challenges faced by intersectional communities during COVID-19. This report aims to analyze the importance of applying an intersectional lens to healthcare, specifically as it pertains to health gaps among homeless and minority populations during public health crises, specifically within the COVID-19 context.
