Abstract
Ensuring patient understanding and providing culturally sensitive care are essential to providing equitable health services for refugees. Practitioners can address language and occupational justice to promote autonomy of care for refugees.
Primary Author and Speaker: Alyssa Hillenbrand
Contributing Authors: Diana Goodman
The purpose of this poster presentation is to determine if an educational program on culturally and linguistically appropriate service (CLAS) provison improves healthcare provider’s sense of confidence in working with refugee clients. This project is completed at a refugee resettlement agency that specializes in perinatal care. The educational program consists of the following topics: background to refugee resettlement services, humility and interpretation best practice, and perinatal and pregnancy support. This study spans 3 weeks, with one virtual asynchronous module released each week. This presentation contributes to the field of occupational therapy by providing healthcare providers with information focused on culturally and linguistically appropriate services that assist pregnant refugees in the occupation of healthcare management while emphasizing an occupational justice perspective. The study was designed after identifying the need for improved care and completing a review of current evidence stating language barriers, health literacy, and lack of understanding of cultural beliefs and practices are barriers expressed by healthcare providers working with refugees (Fair et al., 2021; Jirovsky et al., 2018). Participants recruited are healthcare providers associated with the resettlement agency This study examines outcomes with descriptive statistics. A self-created pre and post-test survey was conducted for the purpose of this project. The intended outcome is to improve provider confidence. The conclusion of this project will indicate whether a program on CLAS provision is impactful in the confidence of healthcare providers to treat refugees. Training on this topic impacts the way we treat patients by giving us the tools to allow patients autonomy over their care. Additionally, it adds to occupational science by promoting a greater understanding of healthcare disparities through an OT lens.
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