Refugee health

Refugee health is an important aspect to the work of Mater Health Services. Our organisation has made a significant commitment to supporting refugees in the community.

Services

• Refugee Maternity Service, which is a best practice model of care for women from a refugee background
• Refugee Health Queensland (RHQ) is a state-wide network of refugee health services with a central office based at Mater Health Service and clinics across the state.
• the Mater/UQ Centre for Primary Health Care manages a number of key projects including the Refugees and Primary Health (RaPH) project, an initiative funded by Queensland Health. RaPH is developing information and referral pathways to support primary health care professionals working with refugee communities and chronic disease. This project has compiled a list of web resources, including an updated version of the GP Desktop Guide for Patients in General Practice.

Who is a refugee?

As defined by the United Nations, a refugee is a person who:

• owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted
• for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion
• is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country
• or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence as a result of such events, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it.

Basically, refugees are people who leave their country because they fear for their safety or the safety of their family and who seek protection in a safe country, such as Australia.

Refugees in Queensland

Refugees settling in Queensland come from a wide variety of countries but most recently have arrived from a range of African, Middle Eastern and Asian countries. The majority of refugees come to Queensland via the Department of Immigration and Citizenship’s (DIAC) Integrated Humanitarian Settlement Strategy and settle here as permanent residents, with Medicare-eligibility, access to Centrelink payments and Health Care Cards.

Refugees present with a wide variety of health conditions related to their refugee experience (for example, torture and trauma issues) and related to their experience living in a refugee camp (for example, disease acquired due to lack of clean drinking water, malnourishment and chronic illness resulting from lack of access to quality health care service).

Resources

Addressing the gaps: The health and wellbeing of people from a refugee background settling in Queensland.

Building trust: Delivering health care to newly arrived refugees

Refugees and Primary Health (RaPH) Project - Final Report