Migration and health news from around the WHO European Region
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Migration and health news from around the WHO European Region.
Migration and Health Newsletter
December 2022
On 18 December, WHO/Europe marks International Migrants Day calling on decision-makers and everyone to include migrants in efforts to provide universal health coverage for all.
Enabling migrants to have the full enjoyment of health care does not stop at granting formal entitlements but also requires inclusive and non-discriminatory health services that ensure quality of care.
Migrants still face many challenges in accessing health care, such as legal status, language barriers, and lack of resources. These barriers need to be lowered to build inclusive, people-centred health systems. Migrants themselves have many important insights on how this can be achieved.
The new WHO/Europe country implementation guide Participatory health research with migrants looks at the important role that migrants themselves can take in health research to make health systems more sensitive to their needs.
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Youtube playlist
World report on the health of refugees and migrants
A new WHO/Europe report, launched on International Migrants Day 2022, shows that involving migrants in health research improves migrant-sensitive service delivery and fosters empowerment. International policies are clear that communities should be involved in research on their health. However, it is often especially underserved communities such as migrants that are not yet involved in research on their health.
“We need to ensure that health systems respond to the needs of all, including migrants. Including their perspectives in research can help us to ask the right questions to find appropriate answers and solutions to their health needs.”
Dr Gundo Weiler, Director of the Division of Country Support, Emergency Preparedness and Response at WHO/Europe
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Report
University of Limerick and WHO collaborate on participatory research to build ‘migrant-sensitive health systems’
The mental health needs of refugees were brought into focus at a workshop, organized by WHO in Warsaw on 20–21 October 2022, where lessons were shared by refugee-receiving countries and strategies discussed on how to handle the rising numbers of refugees arriving from the war in Ukraine. Experts from receiving countries shared best practices for the provision of urgently needed mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) to arriving refugees.
Held under the aegis of the Pan-European Mental Health Coalition and as a follow up to the High-level Meeting on Health and Migration held in Istanbul in March 2022, participants included members of civil society, international organizations and mental health and migration experts, members of the refugee community and representatives of refugee-receiving countries as well as WHO representatives working on the mental health response.
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Universities have a pivotal role in building competence for refugee and migrant health. The reportage showcases the work of the University of Uppsala, which provides both education and training on migrant-sensitive health care, as well as research and technical guidance as the WHO Collaborating Centre on Migration and Health Data and Evidence.
This reportage was screened at the Third Global School on Refugee and Migrant Health, 28 November to 2 December 2022.
