Citation

Peterson P, Ali S, Kenneh A, Wakefield A. Aust. J. Prim. Health 2019; 25(2): 113-117.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Australian Institute for Primary Care and School of Public Health, La Trobe University, Publisher CSIRO Publishing)

DOI

10.1071/PY18139

PMID

30986367

Abstract

There is a growing population of people from refugee backgrounds settling in Australia. They have often been forced to flee from their homes in violent circumstances and may have spent many years in refugee camps with poor health support. There are multiple barriers to their effective access to health services. Community engagement with this community can be tokenistic and difficult to effect. This paper highlights the importance of developing a meaningful strategy for community engagement that is not 'one-size-fits-all', which is achieved over time. There is a rich resource available to health practitioners if engagement with refugee-background communities is managed according to the set of trauma-informed and structural principles outlined in this paper.

Language: en