Mental health articles

Migrants, Access to Health Care Most health care services are insufficiently adapted to
the socio-cultural diversity of the clientele they are trying
to serve. Problems of access, the lack of cultural
competence in health care providers, lack of special
provisions (such as interpreter services, translated
health education material) may all be structural barriers
to access and to quality care. Differential impact
of health care services may be linked to discriminatory
practices in the health care system, inadequate health
care concepts and structures dealing with diversity but
also to a lack of skills of the health professionals. Such
obstacles need to be overcome to improve access of
migrants to health care services.

Health care institutions and providers are increasingly challenged to understand and address the needs of an ethnically diverse clientele appropriately. The international interest in ‘culturally responsive care’ parallels recent developments in medicine such as patient-centered care, the enactment of charters of patients’ rights, and the growing importance attached to the outcome of health care interventions and to patient satisfaction.
Cultural differences, however,might be less of a barrier to equitable health and equitable access to health care services, than socio-economic factors, migration factors, discrimination and the selective impact of health care. As ethnic health patterns broadly reflect socioeconomic differences between migrants/ethnic minorities and the majority population, it is essential to develop policies to improve the socio-economic status and the general participation chances of these groups.
Because of legal, financial, linguistic or cultural reasons, itmay be impossible or some difficult for migrants and ethnic minorities to access the health care system,
or to receive the same quality of care as the majority population. Discrimination and racism have been
observed in the domain of health care, and this at a systemic level as well as at the level of individual institutions and/or health care providers.
Some migrant groups (e. g. undocumented immigrant) have only very limited access to the health care system (e. g. limited to emergency care). Access to the health insurance system may not be possible without legal status and/or working permit, etc. Although most ethnic minorities are included in compulsory insurance systems, disparities in access to health care are not limited to direct access. Once they are patients in health care services, the quality of care they receive may be lowerthan that received by patients of the majority population.

Tags: Health, health care