Strategies to Enhance Healthcare Access for Minorities in Australia

This report examines the healthcare access challenges faced by minority groups, including refugees and asylum seekers, in Australia. It identifies key barriers such as language difficulties, cultural stigma, and lack of awareness of available services. The report proposes an education tool, including posters and presentations, targeting both minority groups and healthcare providers. It highlights the importance of screening for health conditions, raising awareness of interpreter services, and addressing mental health issues. The report emphasizes the need for culturally sensitive care, education for healthcare professionals, and collaboration to improve outcomes. The conclusion stresses the significance of addressing communication barriers and preparing healthcare providers to effectively support minority patients. The report also references relevant studies and provides a detailed analysis of the issues at hand.

Access to healthcare to
minority group in Australia

There are 14, 000 refugees fleeing their
country to Australia and once they arrive,
there is a wide range of challenges they face.
The following are some of the ways Minorities
in Australia can get access to healthcare in
(Sveticic,Milner and De Leo,2012).
Introduction

 The target audience in this presentation
includes the minority groups and their
executives. The education tool that will be
used in this case includes posters and
power point presentations written in English
and translated to language of the
minorities.
Target audience and education
tool

 Refugees and asylum-seekers are predisposed to mental health issues such
as anxiety, PTSD and depression to name a few, making them experience
traumatic events and also difficulties to get in the country. These are
contributed by the challenges of accessing visa, challenging migration and
stressful resettlement making them have stress for quite a long time.
Physically, refugees and Minorities from refugee backgrounds experience
high rates of nutritional deficiencies, infectious diseases and mostly their
immunization rates are meager. When entering Australia, Minorities can be
assisted to receive on arrival support by humanitarian settlement services
(HSS) which commonwealth funds to do these supports. This is to be done to
prevent them especially children from diseases through immunizations.
Every territory and state in Australia have HSS who register new arrivals
with Centre link and Medicare and also link clients with counseling services
as well as healthcare providers. The purpose of carrying out screening is to
identify dangerous medical conditions which may even prevent them from
being allowed in the country and also to enable them to acquire settlement
in Australia (Sveticic,Milner and De Leo,2012).
Screening for health conditions

 This is funded by the Commonwealth and is a free
telephone interpreter service which helps healthcare
providers to help people who are Non-English
speakers. This service is mostly underused as many
healthcare providers are not familiar with it and those
who are exposed to it are not aware that it is free and
it is the doctor requirement to organize the interpreter.
The biggest mistake is that even with this service,
many health consultations are done without an
interpreter. Sometimes family members are used to
doing this interpretation work which many times
results in significant errors and loss of patients trust
(Sveticic,Milner and De Leo,2012).
Creating Awareness on Translating and Interpreter Service

 Asylum seekers who do not have Medicare face greater
challenges when they want to access primary healthcare. Even
as some general practitioners provide with pro bono care,
there is still struggles to access specialist, medication and
pathologist care. There is a need to link these people to state-
funded refugee clinics and Community Based organizations to
provide this service at a subsidized cost since they do not
understand that they need to ring ahead to book
appointments. Sometimes hospitals, private and public sectors
are the causes of a barrier even to those with Medicare cards.
This would make some refugees fear to access treatment due
to cost or present themselves to emergency departments for
general practice type symptoms. This would need to help them
ring to book an appointment (Sveticic,Milner and De Leo,2012)
Helping them to Access Care

 Depending on what people have been subjected on especially torture by
a person in authority, refuges or Minorities may find it difficult to
negotiate themselves around housing and other issues or might struggle
to go to a Centre link branch. Trust needs to be understood when helping
these people access health care (Sveticic,Milner and De Leo,2012)
 Migrant communities receive healthcare at very low costs. The main
barriers that disadvantage them in seeking available services include
cultural stigma, limited knowledge about the available services and
language barrier. Therefore more needs to be done in collaboration with
schools and healthcare centers to create awareness on the available
healthcare services for the Minorities. Helping them connect with Victoria
foundation for survivors especially for those who have experienced
torture and traumatic events in their home countries can be very
important. Humanitarian groups who receive migrants should encourage
settlement workers to make referrals to Victoria foundation for survivors
of torture (Sveticic,Milner and De Leo,2012).
Addressing mental health issues

 Relying on an interpreter or second language
 A situation where there is communication between people of different languages
may lead to an increase in psychological stress. Details of diagnosis have to be
communicated well and accurately to prevent the likelihood of occurrence of the
associated factors. Failure to comply with the medical instructions is caused by
poor communication. This can have severe consequences and put the patient into
risk (Guirgis et al.,2012). Communication barriers are majorly caused by;
 Language barriers
 Materials that are culturally appropriate, translated or written in plain language
and visuals like pictures and graphs should be used.
 Hearing barriers
 The use of print materials, text telephone, video with captions and written
instructions should be encouraged.
 Visual barriers
 In such a case, the use of audio recording, large print materials, and screen
magnifiers as well as screen reader software should be encouraged to overcome
this barrier (Guirgis et al.,2012)
Educating Healthcare professionals on how to care for
patients with communication barriers

 In conclusion, the communication barrier may
either happen due to inability to hear
(problem with the ears), visual impairment
(inability to see) and as a result of language
barriers. Health care providers must be very
sensitive to these barriers when dealing with
their clients. They need to prepare sufficiently
with methods of dealing with the challenges.
The education of healthcare providers on how
to care for people with language barriers is
also an important factor to consider.
Conclusion

 Guirgis, M., Nusair, F., Bu, Y.M., Yan, K. and
Zekry, A.T., 2012. Barriers faced by
Minorities in accessing healthcare for viral
hepatitis infection. Internal medicine
journal, 42(5), pp.491-496.
Sveticic, J., Milner, A. and De Leo, D., 2012.
Contacts with mental health services before
suicide: a comparison of Indigenous with
non-Indigenous Australians. General
hospital psychiatry, 34(2), pp.185-191.
References