Health Access and Perceptions of Newly Arrived Refugees in Philadelphia
This Pennsylvania Department of Health funded project, undertaken in partnership with the Philadelphia Refugee Health Collaborative (PRHC), gives an opportunity to refugees to share their experiences with the health care system through qualitative interviews. Information from these interviews provides insights into health access of newly arrived refugees and what can be improved in order to better meet their social service and health needs. The objectives of this project are to: 1) gather feedback from recently arrived refugees in Philadelphia on their experience in accessing health care and services to inform resettlement agency practices in supporting access to care; 2) gather feedback from recently arrived refugees on their experience in utilizing health care to inform clinic practices in providing accessible and culturally competent care; 3) collect information from PRHC clinics and resettlement agencies to understand health services provided for newly arrived refugees.
Methodology
The researchers conducted qualitative interviews with 83 refugees who arrived in Philadelphia within the last year and were resettled and screened by a PRHC partner. In addition, information was gathered from PRHC resettlement agencies and clinics. Open-ended surveys were administered to the health coordinator of each PRHC resettlement agency. Telephone calls were placed to each PRHC clinic in order to determine the availability of language interpretation for callers through their appointment scheduling system. The data from these interviews and surveys are synthesized in this report.
Results
Interviews were conducted with a total of 83 participants who comprised 5% of the total arrival number of each respective refugee ethnic group in Philadelphia in the past year. The purposive quota sample included Bhutanese Nepali, Iraqi, Burmese, Eritrean, and Sudanese refugees. The major themes that emerged during this project include: access to care, refugee health orientation, resettlement agency support, health care utilization, and health clinic support.
Conclusions and implications
This assessment elucidates many challenges that newly arrived refugees face regarding health access. Important implications of this study include: decreasing barriers presented by the health system to refugees, improving the efficacy of the refugee health orientation, bolstering community-based support for refugees, and clarifying insurance coverage and options beyond the 8 month period of federally-funded Refugee Medical Assistance.