General Interview

LANGUAGE BARRIERS

This is a very common issue with newly arrived refugees or refugee claimants, but it should never prevent these people from accessing quality healthcare. A professional phone or in-person interpreter should be used. Family members should only be used to interpret as a last resort.

 

CONFIDENTIALITY

At the start of the initial visit, we usually inform refugee patients about the confidentiality of medical appointments and medical records. This usually helps building a relationship of trust with these patients. This is especially true for refugee claimants who have to be reassured that the information they share with their family physician will not affect their refugee claim in any way.

 

GEOGRAPHIC HISTORY

It is essential to know in which countries patients have lived in (and when) during their lives. This will have an impact on the screening tests that should be ordered for these patients and on the differential diagnoses of some clinical presentations (e.g. fever). Often, refugees and refugee claimants will have transitioned through different countries before arriving in Canada.

It is also important to ask patients if they have stayed in a refugee camp, since this can be a risk factor for multiple conditions (e.g. gastrointestinal parasites).