New Scots refugee integration strategy 2018-2022: summary

Summary of the New Scots refugee integration strategy 2018-22.


Health and Wellbeing

" Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control."

Article 25 (1) Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Objectives and Actions

The following initial actions set out the work related to health and wellbeing, which will be progressed in the first instance:

Outcome: Refugees and asylum seekers understand their rights, responsibilities and entitlements and are able to exercise them to pursue full and independent lives.

Objective: what we want to achieve

Action: what we will do

Refugees and asylum seekers are able to look after and improve their own health and wellbeing.

Work with NHS 24 and health and social care partnerships to improve the availability of information about people's rights and entitlements and how to access services. Ensure this work is linked into Making it Easier - the refreshed health literacy action plan.

Increase participation of refugees and asylum seekers in local and national health forums and strategy groups.

Extend opportunities for refugees and asylum seekers to benefit from peer support to improve their knowledge of health care systems and health improvement strategies, including those that have a positive impact on mental health and wellbeing.

Outcome: Refugees and asylum seekers are able to access well-coordinated services, which recognise and meet their rights and needs.

Objective: what we want to achieve

Action: what we will do

Refugees and asylum seekers, who use health and social care services, have positive experiences of those services, and have their dignity respected.

Continue to identify and disseminate evidence about the health needs of refugees and asylum seekers, to support services in carrying out Health Inequalities Impact Assessments, and to meet their public sector equality duty.

Ensure complaints procedures are accessible to all refugees and asylum seekers.

Services are more responsive to the needs of refugees and asylum seekers.

Ensure sufficient guidance and training for health and social care staff on the issues faced by asylum seekers, in line with the recommendation of the Equalities and Human Rights Committee's report, Hidden Lives - New Beginnings.

Ensure trauma informed practice is embedded into health services and other service provision.

Share best practice and quality guidance for interpreting services used within health and social care to improve practice by health and social care staff.

Outcome: Policy, strategic planning and legislation, which have an impact on refugees and asylum seekers, are informed by their rights, needs and aspirations.

Objective: what we want to achieve

Action: what we will do

Relevant policy, strategic planning and legislation are informed by the underlying social factors, which impact refugee and asylum seeker health and wellbeing.

Work to identify data that monitors the mental health and wellbeing of refugees and asylum seekers, and its impact on integration, to improve data usage and inform relevant strategies.

Identify research priorities to provide further evidence of the impact of social factors on health and wellbeing of refugees and asylum seekers.

Continue to identify and disseminate evidence about the health needs of refugees and asylum seekers to inform planning of health and social care services.

Respond to consultation and engagement opportunities to ensure policy and practice associated with wider social factors is informed by refugee and asylum seeker health needs and rights.

Contact

scotlandsrefugeestrategy@gov.scot

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