South Asian Peer Health Coaches
South Asian Peer Health Coaches were a part of the BETTER Women Program
What is the BETTER Women Program?
The program provides medical advice about chronic illness and disease prevention. Along with personalized advice, women also have virtual access to a peer health coach (PHC) for six months. PHCs are trained to help women reach their health and cancer screening goals.
The program is currently active on three sites:
Barrie and Community Family Health Team: Family Medicine Teaching Unit
Summerville Family Health Team
Women’s College Hospital Family Practice Health Centre
To learn about the evaluation of the program, check out this page.
Partners and Funders
South Asian PHCs cohort is active in the Summerville Family Health Team site
The majority of patients at the Summerville Family Health Team are South Asian, and the South Asian PHCs will be matched with these patients.
Training delivered to PHCs “included guidance on helping women and their families overcome complex, and often sensitive, obstacles related to accessing culturally safe healthcare services.”
The first cohort of the South Asian PHCs gathered on Zoom in July 2022 to celebrate their graduation. Graduates of the program, which included doctors, nurses, lawyers, and accountants celebrated with a virtual chai event to embark on this milestone and look forward to a future of helping women live healthier lives. Since then, a second South Asian PHCs cohort has graduated.