Centre for Research on Inner City Health

The Centre for Research on Inner City Health (CRICH) in Toronto, Ontario is Canada’s only hospital-based research organization focused on the health consequences of urban life and social inequality. Founded in 1998, CRICH is based at St. Michael's Hospital, one of Canada's leading research and teaching hospitals.

Purpose

Across a range of health conditions and in spite of universal health care policies, lower income populations are at greatest risk of illness and experience greatest unmet need for health care services. CRICH generates scientific evidence and tools to address these health care barriers and design effective interventions to reduce health disparities.

Research Focus

One third of CRICH faculty members are front-line physicians at St. Michael’s Hospital, providing a direct link between population research and patient care. The different disciplines covered by the faculty give the centre strengths in a broad range of scientific research fields including:
* medicine
* social and clinical epidemiology
* psychology and psychiatry
* public health
* biostatistics
* economics
* geography and GIS mapping techniques
* bioethics

There are ten different programs at CRICH covering the breadth of research on inner city health issues.

Research Priorities and Population

There are three areas of inner city health that researchers at CRICH hold as main priorities:
* Health-promoting neighbourhoods.
* Health effects of homelessness and underhousing.
* Evaluating health services for marginalized groups.

Within these priorities, the focus populations include:
* Homeless and underhoused people
* Urban aboriginals
* At-risk women and children
* Immigrants and refugees
* People living with HIV/AIDS
* People living with mental illness

Affiliations and Support

CRICH is affiliated with the University of Toronto and is part of the Keenan Research Centre in the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute of St. Michael’s Hospital. It is supported by the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care to conduct research to help Ontarians have equitable access to care services, regardless of who they are, where they live, or what they own.

CRICH researchers are called upon to advise communities and decision-makers in health care, housing, community and social services, urban planning, and immigration portfolios.

References

# Centre for Research on Inner City Health Homepage http://www.crich.ca

External links

* [http://www.stmichaelshospital.com/crich/index.php Centre for Research on Inner City Health]
* [http://www.stmichaelshospital.com/ St. Michael's Hospital]