Refugee Impact On Refugees

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1.0 Introduction A refugee is an individual who has escaped their country of origin and is incompetent to return due to fear of being victimized because of their religion, race and for political or social view (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, 2006).This essay illustrates some of the main impacts that affect the health of refugee in Australia from overseas. Language is a significant barrier to health, these refugee come from non-English speaking countries and find it hard to access health services. They feel disempowered because every time they need an interpreter who is not always available (Australian Human Rights Commission [AHRC], 2010). The use of interpreters is many impacts on health such as, miss communication (The department …show more content…

Mental health issues due to unemployment, is most common amongst women (Ethnic community’s council of Victoria (ECCC), 2009). As well as poor Health literacy skills, refugees who arrive in Australia do not have the basic understanding of the types of health services available and not aware of the factors that can influence their health (CareSearch, 2014). Most refugees have a limited health literacy, especially older adults and those with low education levels (Ethnic community’s council of Victoria (ECCV), 2012). This leads to chronic conditions such as Tuberculosis (CareSearch, …show more content…

(Chand, 2012). Limited access to interpreters can be challenging because interpreters may not be on site in most health care canters (Australian Human Rights Commission [AHRC], 2010). Most new refugees in Australia come from non-English speaking countries which impacts on their health when they come to Australia (Sheikh-Mohammed, Raina MacIntyre, J Wood, Leask, & Isaacs, 2006). On the other hand, these refugees may also feel frustrated when explaining their health issues to the interpreter at the clinic because the interpreter may not explain to the doctor the way they want (Sheikh-Mohammed et al. 2006). However, some health care services lack this which results in refugee patients trying to explain their issues to the doctor (AHRC, 2010). The use of Jargon in health care services has proven to be very difficult to understand (Australian Human Rights Commission, 2010). According to (AHRC, 2010), when refugees visit the doctors they are spoken to using jargon words can come across as threatening, which makes them feel discouraged from asking questions or requesting clarity. This leads to miss understanding and communication difficulties between the patient and doctor (AHRC, 2010). Due to this language barrier health professionals are not able to understand the needs of refugees (AHRC, 2010). Which can lead to “misdiagnosis” and challenging for the doctor to monitor through the patients’ health (The department of human

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