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Community-based care for refugees to overcome health disparities

Nature Reviews Disease Primers volume 9, Article number: 16 (2023) Cite this article

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Refugees are a growing and dynamic global population that require theories, programmes and policies to improve community-based integration and health care. Although many gender, cultural and system barriers persist, countries must innovate to support migration flow, universal care coverage, trauma-informed approaches and health equity for refugees.

The International Organization of Migration (IOM) estimated that there were >80 million forcibly displaced persons worldwide in 2020, with >26 million refugees globally1. The UN Geneva Convention for Refugees defines a refugee as “someone who is unable or unwilling to return to their country of origin owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion.” The number of refugees is expected to increase due to global instability and climate change, and this vulnerable population requires dedicated community-based integration and health-care approaches to ensure their physical and mental health (Table 1).

Table 1 Problems, barriers and solutions to health care for migrants and refugees
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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Family Medicine, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada

    Kevin Pottie

  2. Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada

    Kevin Pottie

  3. Department of Family Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

    Doug Gruner

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  1. Kevin Pottie
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Correspondence to Kevin Pottie.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Related links

Public health guidance on screening and vaccination for infectious diseases in newly arrived migrants within the EU/EEA: https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/publications-data/public-health-guidance-screening-and-vaccination-infectious-diseases-newly

The 1951 Refugee Convention: https://www.unhcr.org/uk/1951-refugee-convention.html

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Pottie, K., Gruner, D. Community-based care for refugees to overcome health disparities. Nat Rev Dis Primers 9, 16 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41572-023-00430-9

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