Journal of immigrant health
Volume 5, Issue 1, 2003, Pages 19-28

The journey to wellness: stages of refugee health promotion and disease prevention. (Article)

Palinkas L.A.* , Pickwell S.M. , Brandstein K. , Clark T.J. , Hill L.L. , Moser R.J. , Osman A.
  • a Immigrant and Refugee Health Studies Program, Department of Family and Preventive Medicine, University of California, San Diego, California 92093-0807, United States
  • b Immigrant and Refugee Health Studies Program, Department of Family and Preventive Medicine, University of California, San Diego, California 92093-0807, United States
  • c Immigrant and Refugee Health Studies Program, Department of Family and Preventive Medicine, University of California, San Diego, California 92093-0807, United States
  • d Immigrant and Refugee Health Studies Program, Department of Family and Preventive Medicine, University of California, San Diego, California 92093-0807, United States
  • e Immigrant and Refugee Health Studies Program, Department of Family and Preventive Medicine, University of California, San Diego, California 92093-0807, United States
  • f Immigrant and Refugee Health Studies Program, Department of Family and Preventive Medicine, University of California, San Diego, California 92093-0807, United States
  • g Immigrant and Refugee Health Studies Program, Department of Family and Preventive Medicine, University of California, San Diego, California 92093-0807, United States

Abstract

Refugees experience a threefold challenge to their health and well-being: 1) psychiatric disorders precipitated by the refugee experience, 2) infectious and parasitic diseases endemic to countries of origin, and 3) chronic diseases endemic to host countries. This paper documents the "journey to wellness" in which these challenges are faced in stages by the refugees themselves and by the array of health and social service agencies committed to providing refugee assistance. Using the experience of a consortium of agencies in San Diego as an example, we examine the interaction between these challenges and the mobilization of organizations to develop a program of health promotion and disease prevention for Somali and other East African refugees. This mobilization involves a series of steps designed to facilitate refugee confidence, comprehension, and compliance with prevention efforts through community-provider partnerships and negotiation between refugee and organizational explanatory models of disease causation and prevention.

Author Keywords

[No Keywords available]

Index Keywords

cultural anthropology Cultural Diversity HIV Infections refugee health promotion Human immunodeficiency virus infection Preventive Health Services human Communicable Diseases Refugees ethnology Social Work Mental Disorders program development mental disease United States Humans California preventive health service Article organization and management communicable disease migration Emigration and Immigration
Link
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-0142213421&doi=10.1023%2fA%3a1021048112073&partnerID=40&md5=cd0c20a6f6c7807d676cb737272d878c
DOI: 10.1023/A:1021048112073
ISSN: 10964045
Cited by: 55
Original Language: English