Last week we joined Health Innovation East Midlands to host a joint webinar, exploring ideas and opportunities for healthcare professionals to better engage with asylum seekers and refugees.
Health Innovation East Midlands brings together partners from across all healthcare sectors. including the NHS, social care, public health, patients and the third sector, to identify and spread new technologies and better ways of working. They recognise that asylum seekers and refugees face disproportionate health inequalities and are amongst the most marginalised and underserved groups in our society, so they kindly invited us to join them to discuss how to overcome these barriers and better engage these groups.
This co-produced session was presented by Deborah Wilson, Patient Public Involvement Engagement Officer, Health Innovation East Midlands, Debbie Royle, Deputy Director of Nottingham Refugee Forum and Halima Hamza, Interpreter and General Advice volunteer.
The well attended webinar provided insightful tips on how to best engage with communities, with many sharing first hand experiences and providing knowledge on how to deliver more effective and inclusive research, services, and innovations.
A video of the webinar, and full presentation slides, can be found on Health Innovation’s website. We have also put together a handy hints factsheet for any health professional working with refugees and asylum seekers.