Barriers to health service use by refugees settled in Australia
Citation: Parajuli J, Horey D. How can healthcare professionals address poor health service utilisation among refugees after resettlement in Australia? A narrative systematic review of recent evidence. Australian Journal of Primary Health. 2019;25:205–213.
Language: Abstract and full text available in EN.
Free to view: Yes.
Funding sources: No external funding.
What is this? In this systematic review, the authors searched for qualitative studies of barriers and facilitators to health service use by refugees after resettlement in Australia. They restricted their searches to articles published in English between 2006 and 2017. The authors searched in December 2017 and found 12 studies.
What was found: The authors identified more barriers than facilitators for settled refugees in Australia. Common barriers were the lack of cultural knowledge and poor cultural competency of health care professionals. Other barriers were time constraints, inconsistent use of interpreters, uncoordinated care efforts, and limited experience with traumatised patients and complex needs. A few facilitators were noted, but not evaluated.
Implications: The authors of the review concluded that healthcare professionals working with refugees needed more support and training, and that health services need to be better integrated across systems. Several recommendations were offered, such as the development of different care models, remuneration to incentivise services that meet refugees’ needs, and the location of services.
Other considerations: The authors of the review discussed their findings in the context of culture and language.
This summary was prepared by Catherine Haynes, checked by Grace Meng, and finalized by William Summerskill.