NSW Health services and staff can follow these practical steps to set up a local refugee health service. The process may differ according to the settlement site.
Service planning
- Talk with the regional refugee service leads and stakeholders in other local health districts (LHDs).
- Establish and build relationships with the NSW Refugee Health Service and primary health network in your LHD.
- Set up local network meetings with all relevant stakeholders, such as primary care providers, allied health services, local council, Aboriginal community groups and non-profit organisations.
- Engage with internal health partners, particularly the Health Care Interpreter Service, oral health, emergency department, mental health and child and family health teams.
- Understand the types of support services and programs available to people of refugee backgrounds on their arrival into Australia; for example, humanitarian programs and NSW Service for the Treatment and Rehabilitation of Torture and Trauma Survivors (STARTTS).
- Bring your team together and establish ways of workings.
- Set up local governance structures.
- Generate local sponsorship.
- Establish a multicultural access committee for your service or district.
- Understand your current resources and identify potential gaps.
- Establish partnerships and agreements with settlement service providers and set common goals.
- Establish professional and clinical supervision pathways for staff who will work in your service.
- Refer to Building networks and partnerships.
- Learn about the NSW Refugee Health Network.
- Email the Network to join the statewide nurses network.
- Templates, such as a project management plan, timeline, communication plan, risk and issues.
- Redesign methodology fact sheets on topics such as setting up project governance, designing a risk and issues log and obtaining sponsorship.
- NSW Health's Refugee health policy
Understand community needs
- Learn the demographics and health needs of your arriving cohorts, if possible.
- Gain knowledge of the refugee journey, trauma-informed care and the common health care needs of refugee people.
- Understand the settlement process and and visa categories.
- Access the Health Assessment Portal (HAP) data for all new arrivals.
- Learn from established services that understand the enablers and barriers to service delivery.
- Ensure staff have access to all relevant practice guidelines and internal processes and resources.
- Refer to Understanding unique needs.
- Refer to Barriers and enablers.
- Review the NSW Refugee Health Service fact sheets for clinicians.
- Refugees in Australia: a quick guide from the Refugee Council of Australia.
- Australian Refugee Health Practice Guide: for doctors, nurses and other primary care providers to inform initial and ongoing healthcare.
- The Standards of Practice for Australian Refugee Health Nurses (2018)
- Health Assessment Portal (HAP) for Refugee Clinics and General Practitioners (GPs)
- User Guide for Health Service Organisations Providing Care for Patients from Migrant and Refugee Backgrounds, National Safety and Quality Health Service Standards
Build your team's capability
- Support staff to undertake cultural training, such as STARTTS workshops and NSW Refugee Health Service resources.
- Ensure supports are in place for staff wellbeing.
- Ensure you have interpreters and bicultural workers actively engaged in your clinic or staff are aware of how to use a health interpreter.
- Refer to Staff training and wellbeing.
- Refer to working with interpreters and bicultural workers.
- Training and support for health service providers: a directory of training and support packages, both for NSW Health staff and GPs.
- Refugee health assessment from the Australian Refugee Health Practice Guide.
Go-live with your clinic
- Undertake health assessments, manage referrals and set up case management.
- Hold information sessions and introduce newly-arrived community members to the health system and local health team.
- Continue engaging with local services and key stakeholders.
- Reassess resources and identify potential gaps.
- Activate your clinical champions and sponsors.
- Set up feedback loops to ensure the service is adjusting to the needs of the community and continually improving.
- Refer to Working with interpreters and bicultural workers.
- Refer to Creating a culturally-safe environment.
- Accelerating Implementation Methodology (AIM): a practical set of principles and tools to manage the human elements that are critical to successful implementation.
Monitor and evaluate your service
- Assess the impact of your service.
- Evaluate the benefits of the service.
- Engage with the ACI's Patient Reported Measures team.