Influence of the social determinants of health on access to healthcare services among refugees in Australia

2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica Taylor ◽  
Greer Lamaro Haintz

Refugees in Australia are not fully utilising the healthcare system for several reasons and this may be affecting their overall health outcomes. This qualitative systematic review examined the influence of the social determinants of health on refugees’ access to healthcare services in Australia. Electronic databases were searched using terms relating to refugees, social determinants, healthcare services, barriers, enablers and Australia. Only peer-reviewed studies published in English since 2006, which focused on refugees and specifically discussed social determinants influencing refugees’ access to healthcare services in Australia, were included. The studies were critically analysed using standard Critical Appraisal Skills Programme Tools. Eight studies were included in the review. Findings reveal multiple factors influence refugees’ access to healthcare in Australia, and these can be conceptualised within a social-ecological model of health; that is, they operate across individual, interpersonal, environmental, organisational and policy levels. The novel finding of this review was the re-occurrence of similar influences across multiple healthcare service settings in Australia. The prevalence and re-occurring nature of the social determinants of health suggests that refugees are experiencing multilayered barriers to accessing Australian healthcare. All levels of a social-ecological model must be addressed in any attempt to break down these barriers.

2020 ◽  
pp. 152483992095629
Author(s):  
Ashley Wennerstrom ◽  
Julia Silver ◽  
Miranda Pollock ◽  
Jeanette Gustat

Racial and ethnic disparities remain a public health problem and are largely due to social determinants of health (SDOH). Using an adapted 36-hour community health worker (CHW) curriculum, we trained 42 lay community residents in New Orleans, Louisiana, neighborhoods experiencing disparities in leadership and advocacy skills to address SDOH. Six months posttraining, 29 participants completed a follow-up survey and interview. Participants described increases in knowledge, self-efficacy, and activities related to leadership and advocacy at all levels of the social ecological model. We also found a significant increase in communicating with Louisiana state senators or representatives (p < .0339). Our findings show that an adapted CHW training curriculum focused on SDOH, leadership, and advocacy can be used to train lay community residents in how to make changes in the community conditions that affect health and prompt new engagement to address SDOH at all levels of the social ecological model. Future efforts to increase lay community participation in addressing SDOH may benefit from providing ongoing support to participants such as organizing meetings with residents interested in similar topics, offering opportunities to “shadow” experienced CHWs, or hosting additional skills building workshops.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Veronica L Richards ◽  
Renessa Williams ◽  
Nichole E Stetten ◽  
Shantrel S Canidate ◽  
Angel Algarin ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: Although evidence suggests HIV-related stigma directly affects health and behaviors, we have a limited understanding of stigma’s influence beyond the individual-level. We aimed to describe HIV-related stigma and strategies to reduce it in the Southeastern U.S. within the context of the social ecological model (SEM). Methods: Qualitative surveys were distributed in-person at community events, conferences, and via email to persons affected by HIV periodically over 8 months. The final sample size included 87 participants (33 persons living with HIV, 54 without HIV). A directed content analysis was used to code responses into five levels of the SEM (individual, interpersonal, community, institutional, and structural). Results: Multiple themes emerged within each level: Individual – knowledge, fear, internalization; Interpersonal – social network; Community – judgements, discrimination, community organizations, norms; Institutional – competent providers, healthcare services; and Structural – systemic barriers, language, education. Conclusions: The findings exemplify the need for a multi-level approach to intervene and reduce HIV-related stigma. Based on the experiences and suggestions of people affected by HIV, future interventions should include substantial consideration from persons affected by HIV.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alice W. Fong

Few health studies have been conducted in a non-official language with participants. In addition, few studies have attempted to discover the social determinants of health to account for health inequalities for immigrant women through qualitative interviews (Hyman, 2007). This study endeavoured to understand the perceptions of health and the experiences of healthcare services in Toronto by Cantonese-speaking older immigrant women. The study was conducted in their own language. In addition to the Cantonese-speaking older immigrant women, community workers who work with Chinese immigrant clients were also interviewed. The social determinants of health were divided into post-migration challenges and systemic barriers, then analyzed with an intersectional theoretical framework. This study highlights the importance of an intersectional approach since many social determinants influenced the participants' health experiences. Furthermore, this study underlines the need to advocate for immigrant health to take prominence in national health policy in Canada.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alice W. Fong

Few health studies have been conducted in a non-official language with participants. In addition, few studies have attempted to discover the social determinants of health to account for health inequalities for immigrant women through qualitative interviews (Hyman, 2007). This study endeavoured to understand the perceptions of health and the experiences of healthcare services in Toronto by Cantonese-speaking older immigrant women. The study was conducted in their own language. In addition to the Cantonese-speaking older immigrant women, community workers who work with Chinese immigrant clients were also interviewed. The social determinants of health were divided into post-migration challenges and systemic barriers, then analyzed with an intersectional theoretical framework. This study highlights the importance of an intersectional approach since many social determinants influenced the participants' health experiences. Furthermore, this study underlines the need to advocate for immigrant health to take prominence in national health policy in Canada.


Author(s):  
Dan Magnus ◽  
Sebastian Taylor ◽  
Bhanu Williams

Over the last twenty years there have been significant improvements in global child health and mortality. These advances have been due to improvements in diseases like diarrhoea, pneumonia, malaria, and measles but are also attributable to a broader global health agenda and increased global aid and expenditure on health, with reductions in poverty and enhanced community-oriented and primary healthcare services. This chapter provides an overview of global child health and looks at indicators of child health, the causes and distribution of child deaths and morbidity and disability, as well as the importance of the social determinants of health and future priorities. Addressing current and future threats to child health will require national and international level programme approaches to dealing with key threats such as prematurity, pneumonia, and injuries, as well as health system strengthening, strategies for improving the social determinants of health and investments in supporting research and data systems.


2019 ◽  
Vol 101 (4) ◽  
pp. 357-395 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saty Satya-Murti ◽  
Jennifer Gutierrez

The Los Angeles Plaza Community Center (PCC), an early twentieth-century Los Angeles community center and clinic, published El Mexicano, a quarterly newsletter, from 1913 to 1925. The newsletter’s reports reveal how the PCC combined walk-in medical visits with broader efforts to address the overall wellness of its attendees. Available records, some with occasional clinical details, reveal the general spectrum of illnesses treated over a twelve-year span. Placed in today’s context, the medical care given at this center was simple and minimal. The social support it provided, however, was multifaceted. The center’s caring extended beyond providing medical attention to helping with education, nutrition, employment, transportation, and moral support. Thus, the social determinants of health (SDH), a prominent concern of present-day public health, was a concept already realized and practiced by these early twentieth-century Los Angeles Plaza community leaders. Such practices, although not yet nominally identified as SDH, had their beginnings in the late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century social activism movement aiming to mitigate the social ills and inequities of emerging industrial nations. The PCC was one of the pioneers in this effort. Its concerns and successes in this area were sophisticated enough to be comparable to our current intentions and aspirations.


Author(s):  
Sridhar Venkatapuram

The term health disparities (also called health inequalities) refers to the differences in health outcomes and related events across individuals and social groups. Social determinants of health, meanwhile, refers to certain types of causes of ill health in individuals, including lack of early infant care and stimulation, lack of safe and secure employment, poor housing conditions, discrimination, lack of self-respect, poor personal relationships, low community cohesion, and income inequality. These social determinants stand in contrast to others, such as individual biology, behaviors, and proximate exposures to harmful agents. This chapter presents some of the revolutionary findings of social epidemiology and the science of social determinants of health, and shows how health disparities and social determinants raise profound questions in public health ethics and social/global justice philosophy.


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