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Negative social interactions (NSIs), defined as upsetting interpersonal encounters in daily life, are associated with adverse mental health conditions. Guided by an intersectional perspective, this study explored the impacts of gender, race and immigration status on the experiences of NSIs, using nationally representative data from the 2012 Canadian Community Health Survey-Mental Health (CCHS-MH). The sample consisted of 21,932 participants across Canada. Gender-specific multivariable logistic regression models were used to estimate the effects of race, immigrant status and the interaction term on the likelihood to experience NSIs. Study results showed that women (32.3 per cent) reported significantly more NSIs than men (25.4 per cent). For men, being an immigrant was significantly associated with a lower likelihood of experiencing NSIs; race did not have a significant effect on NSIs. Furthermore, the results revealed that racialised Canadian-born women were more likely to report NSIs than racialised immigrant women, whilst immigration status had no effect among white women. This study suggests the distinct influences of intersecting identities of race, gender and immigration status and that social workers should incorporate an intersectional lens when exploring clients' social relationships and environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In multicultural societies, social workers often work with people of diverse cultural backgrounds. As one of the strategies to facilitate social workers' cultural competence in diverse settings, they are often matched with clients of the same or similar cultural backgrounds. This practice is called ethnic matching and is commonly utilised in ethno-specific and immigrant-serving organisations. This practice has been extensively studied in the literature and is believed to be beneficial to treatment acceptability and service quality. Nonetheless, most of the existing literature focuses on the practitioner–client dyad without taking the broader context into consideration. This study adopted a multidimensional cultural competence approach to examine Chinese practitioners' lived experiences of serving Chinese immigrants in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). Six focus groups were conducted (n  = 34), and data were analysed using a grounded theory approach. Results show themes across four levels: (i) personal: personal experience as a motivator; (ii) interpersonal: shared culture and language as a double-edged sword; (iii) organisational: service target shifts and increased difficulty to ethnically match and (iv) community: intracommunity heterogeneity and mismatch. This study provides recommendations for social workers, educators and policymakers to consider when applying ethnic matching in cross-cultural settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Community engagement was developed as a global principle in the provision of HIV/AIDS services, yet evidence-based research of implementation of the principle is lacking in Taiwan. This short report aims to understand factors associated with engagement in two types of activities with varying levels of visibility: HIV-related community events and HIV-related community action, in Taiwanese men who have sex with men (MSM) living with HIV. A cross-sectional survey was distributed to a purposive sample of participants recruited from AIDS service organizations (ASOs). Among participants (n = 178), 63.6% were involved in HIV-related community events, while less than half (47.7%) were involved in HIV-related community action. In multivariable analysis, age, involvement in ASOs, and AIDS knowledge were positively associated with engagement in community events, and living in the north of Taiwan, years of infection, and self-stigma were negatively associated with this type of engagement. Few factors, with the exception of involvement in ASOs, were positively associated with engagement in HIV-related community action. To this end, ASOs appear to play a strong role in improving and organizing both types of community engagement in Taiwan. Future studies should evaluate tailored programs delivered through ASOs for strengthening community connectedness among younger, stigmatized, and longer diagnosed MSM living with HIV. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]