SIG on Migrant Care, International Health and Travel Medicine Annual Report
Maria van den Muijsenbergh, convenor, WONCA Special Interest Group (SIG) on Migrant Care, International Health and Travel Medicine provides the group's Annual Report for 2016-17.
The
WONCA SIG on Migrant Care, International Health and Travel Medicine, founded in 2008 aims to improve the knowledge and skills of general practitioners as well as the organizational and financial conditions to deliver cultural competent, good quality of primary care to migrants of all kinds: travellers, economic migrants as well as refugees including the undocumented.
The SIG has grown to a group of 60 members by July 2017, from 18 different nations in Australia, South- Africa, USA, South-America, Middle-East and Europe. Members are involved in international research, medical (postgraduate) education and health care delivery related to refugees and other migrants and travellers.
Activities in 2016 - 2017
1. We started a collaboration with Euract and WONCA WP on Education to exchange and develop educational programs and materials for Irish GPs related to culturally sensitive migrant care. This will result in 2018 in on-line available training and educational materials for GP training as well as post-graduate education.
2. We contributed to the development of a European book on migrant care; several SIG members will be co-authoring this book.
3. We started also a collaboration with the WONCA WP on mental health and will develop together a guidance for mental health care and migrants. (See photo of Maria with Chris Dowrick, chair of the WP on Mental Health, running a workshop together in Rio)
4. In collaboration with EACH, the international organization on communication in healthcare we formulated a brief guidance on working with interpreters
5. Workshops and symposium on refugee care and on cultural competent healthcare at WONCA World 2016 in Rio do Janeiro attended by over 70 (workshops)-250 (symposium) participants. At WONCA Europe in Prague we organized together with the SIG on family violence a workshop on migration and violence (60 participants) ; with the WP for mental health a workshop on mental health and migration (40 participants) and we participated in the workshop on advocacy (40 participants); in addition there were several oral presentations by members of our SIG.
Dr Maria van den Muijsenbergh
Convenor
Maria.vandenmuijsenbergh@radboudumc.nl
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