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. 2017 Nov 10;16(1):195.
doi: 10.1186/s12939-017-0694-8.

Healthcare access for refugee women with limited literacy: layers of disadvantage

Annette Floyd  1 , Dikaios Sakellariou  2
Affiliations

Healthcare access for refugee women with limited literacy: layers of disadvantage

Annette Floyd et al. Int J Equity Health. .

Abstract

Background: Record numbers of people, across the world, are forced to be displaced because of conflict or other violations of their human rights, thus becoming refugees. Often, refugees not only have a higher burden of disease but also compromised access to healthcare, as they face many barriers, such as limited knowledge of the local language. However, there is very limited knowledge on the lived experiences of this population. Moreover, the strategies people might develop in their efforts to access healthcare have not been explored in depth, despite their value in establishing peer- support, community based programs.

Methods: In this article, we present the findings of a study aiming to explore the lived experiences of accessing healthcare in the greater Vancouver area for recently-arrived, government-assisted refugee women, who were non-literate and non-English-speaking when they arrived in the country. We carried out sixteen semi-structured interviews with eight refugee women, guided by descriptive phenomenology.

Results: The findings highlight the intersection of limited knowledge of the local language with low literacy, gender, and refugee status and how it impacts women's access to healthcare, leading to added layers of disadvantage. We discuss three themes: (1) Dependence, often leading to compromised choice and lack of autonomy, (2) Isolation, manifesting as fear in navigating the healthcare system, rejection, or shame for a perceived inadequacy, and (3) Resourcefulness in finding ways to access healthcare.

Discussion: We propose that a greater understanding of the intersections of gender, low literacy, and refugee status can guide healthcare workers and policy makers in improving services for this population. Furthermore, It is important to enable seldom-heard, hard to reach populations and facilitate their participation in research in order to understand how vectors of disadvantage intersect.

Keywords: Access to healthcare; Canada; Disadvantage; Refugee and asylum seeker healthcare; Refugees; Women’s health.

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Conflict of interest statement

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Ethical approvals were granted by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK and the University of British Columbia, Canada. All participants gave informed consent to participate.

Consent for publication

Consent for publication was obtained as part of the ethical approval. No identifying information has been used in this publication.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

References

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