Examining the impact of naming equity within perinatal substance use and mental health policy: a scoping review
Sana Z Shahram, Lisa Knox, Megan Black, Alex Kent, Bernie Pauly, Lenora Marcellus · 2025
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Description
Sana Shahram and co-authors reviewed how equity is named in policy on substance use and mental health around pregnancy, in a 2025 paper. How policy frames this topic shapes services for mothers and families for generations. The review covered core policy documents from British Columbia in Canada over twenty years. Documents had to be public, provincial in scope, and tied to care around pregnancy or to mental health and substance use harm.
Thirty documents met the rules, and half of them mentioned equity at all. Only four defined what equity means. Others used stand in words such as risk, disadvantage, or vulnerable, with little direction on who must act or be held to account for root causes. The authors list missed chances that follow from that vagueness. Clearer naming of equity, they argue, is a first step toward policy that names duties and tracks whether they are met.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Sana Z Shahram, Lisa Knox, Megan Black, Alex Kent, Bernie Pauly, Lenora Marcellus |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2025 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 70 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |