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In June, our Refugee Health staff attended the annual North American Refugee Health Conference in Portland, OR. With our Center of Excellence in Refugee Health partners, we led discussions on quality improvement projects related to hepatitis B case management, presented on latent TB infection treatment adherence and long-term outcomes, and co-led a workshop on best practices in mental health screening and referrals. See 2018 Abstract Book for more information.
Along with the University of Minnesota and our other Center of Excellence in Refugee Health partners, we’re planning a Refugee Adolescent and Women’s Health Regional Training on September 21, 2018. Registration for this event is now open! To register or learn more about the daylong training and the networking event planned for September 20, visit z.umn.edu/RefugeeWomensHealth.
After more than 40 years of refugee resettlement work, Catholic Charities of St. Paul and Minneapolis will close its New American Services Program on August 31, 2018. Over the years, the resettlement agency served over 25,000 persons with refugee status who came to Minnesota. Our gratitude goes to all their staff for their partnership and advocacy to secure optimal health care services for these community members.
In this edition, we feature our diverse media project that now includes 21 partners, review best practices for implementing CLAS standards in refugee screening settings, and highlight current global, national and local refugee statistics.
In honor of World Refugee Day, MN Governor Mark Dayton proclaimed June as Refugee Recognition Month.
Artwork by Lou Thao, student at Washington Technology Secondary, winner of the DHS refugee poster contest.
The mission of MDH is to protect, maintain, and improve the health of all Minnesotans. One critical way to fulfill that mission is to reach out to all Minnesota communities with culturally appropriate health messages. The RIHP has been conducting health promotion and community engagement through diverse media since the late 1990s. We expanded our diverse media program in 2011, recognizing that collaborating with a broad range of media partners is a powerful way to deliver health messages to different ethnic and cultural communities. Currently, the RIHP diverse media program has over 21 media partners around the state, ranging from print and online publications to TV, radio and social media.
The diverse media program promotes a topic with partners in each campaign, with multiple campaigns each year. Topics have included awareness of vaccine-preventable diseases, adolescent immunization, chronic disease education, influenza prevention, and emerging health issues. Diverse media partners reach a variety of communities including Latino, Hmong, Somali, East African, African American, and most recently Native American. Advertisements, articles, and public service announcements are translated into languages such as Spanish, Somali, Hmong, Amharic, and Vietnamese to ensure that heath messages reach Minnesotans with limited English proficiency.
Collaboration and relationship-building with the diverse media partners are critical to the success of the diverse media program. These partnerships make it possible to communicate effectively and engage community members, since communities trust the media partners to amplify their voices. Media partners sometimes offer additional insight into framing messages so they will resonate best with their audiences. The diverse media program makes it possible to engage communities not reached through traditional media outlets in Minnesota.
Diverse media partners are committed to helping spread important health messages and find their work with MDH rewarding. Alejandro Orozco Aceves, News Director at La Raza radio station, stated, “Los actos de humanidad más importantes son aquellos que están encaminados en la salud de nuestros hermanos; unir esfuerzos con MDH para este fin es algo muy gratificante más allá del trabajo por sí mismo.” (English translation: “The most important acts of humanity are those that are aimed at the health of our brothers; joining forces with MDH for this purpose is something very rewarding beyond the work itself.”)
Katie Thornton, KFAI radio underwriting representative, said, “As a longtime communication partner of MDH, the KFAI community is continually grateful for the diverse media program. Our underwriting partnership allows us to quickly broadcast essential health information to our audiences in seven different languages. We are thankful that MDH chooses to serve our state's diverse communities through the media they know and trust.”
If you’d like to learn more about the RIHP diverse media program or connect with any of the media partners, please email Mimi Ahmed Mohamud.
From January 1, 2017 through December 31, 2017, 1,103 primary refugees resettled in Minnesota. This represented a 65% decrease in the number of arrivals compared to 2016, when 3,186 refugees resettled in Minnesota.
Among the 1,103 primary refugee arrivals:
- 40% were from Somalia
- 15% were from Burma,
- 11% were from Ethiopia,
- 8% were from Afghanistan,
- 26% were from 25 other countries* (Figure 1)
Figure 1: Primary Refugee Arrivals to Minnesota by Country of Origin
*Includes Belarus, Cameroon, China, Djibouti, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Eritrea, Guatemala, Honduras, Indonesia, Kenya, Liberia, Mexico, Moldova, Nepal, Philippines, Russia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Ukraine, and Vietnam
Forty-one percent of primary refugees resettled in Ramsey County, 22% resettled in Hennepin County, 8% resettled in Stearns County, 7% resettled in Anoka County, and the remaining 22% resettled in 18 other counties across Minnesota (Figure 2).
Figure 2: 2017 Primary Refugee Arrivals to Minnesota by County of Resettlement
Nationally, from October 1, 2016-September 30, 2017, 53,716 refugees were resettled in the United States (source: Refugee Processing Center Admissions and Arrivals). The majority of refugees resettled in California (10% of arrivals), Texas (9%), and New York (6%). This represented a 37% decrease compared to October 1, 2015-September 30, 2016, when 84,994 refugees were resettled to the United States. From October 1, 2017 through May 31, 2018, 14,331 refugees have resettled in the United States.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has released its 2017 Global Trends report. They estimate there are 68.5 million forcibly displaced persons worldwide, including 25.4 million refugees. More than two-thirds of refugees worldwide came from just five countries: Syria, Afghanistan, South Sudan, Myanmar (Burma), and Somalia. Only 102,800 refugees were resettled in a third country during 2017.
Clinics and health systems across Minnesota work with a diverse group of patients. Working with refugees and immigrants may require providers to seek out new resources and learn more about travelers’ health or tropical medicine, for example. But most importantly, in working with newer Minnesotans, clinics reaffirm their commitment to providing care that is accessible and relevant to the patients in front of them. This is the same approach Minnesota clinics have brought to their work for years. Patients with literacy challenges, or patients who struggle with poverty, are not new. As clinics engage with patients who have refugee status in the context of domestic refugee health assessments or primary care, many of the same best practices apply. In addition, proactive policies and practices related to language access and cultural differences can help build excellent health care homes. Below are just a few examples of how this looks in Minnesota:
In southwest Minnesota, Mayo clinics in towns such as Albert Lea or Austin have been working with new arrivals with refugee status. This includes learning the process of Refugee Health Assessments and some clinical knowledge, and also working through clinic processes and procedures around language access, for example. MDH, local public health, and Mayo Clinic Health System worked to roll out clinic level trainings to discuss best practices. “Working in conjunction [with MDH and our local public health offices] to meet the needs of these patients ensures their health and well-being, and also sets them up to receive quality care for all of their future health care needs,” says Heidi Poole with Mayo Clinic Health System (Southeastern Minnesota Regional Nurse Manager, Infection Prevention and Control)
In St. Paul, HealthEast Roselawn Clinic has long served members of the Karen community (from Burma), many of whom arrived with refugee status. Dr. Shana Sniffen worked closely with community leaders to launch the Karen Chemical Dependency Collaborative, informed and led by the community. See a profile of this work in the October 2017 issue of this newsletter.
In Minnesota, as at the national level, immigrant communities face significant health disparities. Initiatives such as those above help to shape a future in which health care works for all Minnesotans. The Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health has developed a set of National Standards for Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services (CLAS) in Health and Health Care to highlight activities that can help providers and institutions in this work. The CLAS standards and their accompanying assessment and blueprint help to make these best practices doable for health professionals and health systems.
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