Interventions to improve primary health care quality for refugees and asylum seekers
Citation: Iqbal PM, Walpola R, Harris-Roxas B, et al. Improving primary health care quality for refugees and asylum seekers: A systematic review of interventional approaches. Health Expectations. 2021;1–30.
Language: Abstract and full text available in EN.
Free to view: Yes.
Funding sources: School of Population Health, University of New South Wales Grant Building Scheme.
What is this? It is important to ensure the quality of the health care provided at the primary care level to refugees and asylum seekers.
In this systematic review, the authors searched for studies of the effects of interventions and other approaches intended to enhance the quality of health care provided to refugees and asylum seekers. They restricted their searches to articles published in English and did the search in September 2020. They included 55 studies, which were from Australia (6), Europe (14) and North America (35).
What was found: Interventions aiming to improve the quality of primary health care for refugees and asylum seekers were classified in four broad areas: developing skills of individual refugees or asylum seekers and their families; developing skills of primary healthcare workers; using system and/or service integration models and structures; and enhancing communication systems.
Most of the identified interventions were focused on developing the skills of individual refugees or asylum seekers and their families, but many were focused on models and systems of care to improve communication and care arrangements.
Identified challenges included communication, confidence or trust in the provision of care, and continuity of care including resettlement.
Implications: The authors of the review concluded that their findings suggest that there is value in involving multidisciplinary healthcare workers when exploring models of healthcare delivery for refugees and asylum seekers. They stated that further research is needed to study the involvement of multidisciplinary teams and community-focused and intersectional approaches that may be important in providing good quality care for refugees and asylum seekers.
Other considerations: The authors of the review discussed their findings in the context of culture, language and personal characteristics (refugees and asylum seekers).
This summary was prepared by Yasmeen Saeed and finalized by Mike Clarke.