Community engagement with refugee-background communities around health: the experience of the Group of 11
Paula Peterson A B , Samira Ali A , Alie Kenneh A and Ally Wakefield A
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations
A Mater Misericordiae Brisbane Ltd, Mater Centre for Integrated Care and Innovation, Raymond Terrace, South Brisbane, Qld 4101, Australia.
B Corresponding author. Email: paula.peterson@mater.org.au
Australian Journal of Primary Health 25(2) 113-117 https://doi.org/10.1071/PY18139
Submitted: 30 August 2018 Accepted: 4 March 2019 Published: 16 April 2019
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.
Additional keywords: consumer engagement, refugee health, trauma-informed model of engagement.
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