An event highlighting issues around refugee and migrant health has taken place at University of Limerick.
The 2nd Refugee and Migrant Health Networking and Knowledge Exchange Seminar took place at UL, gathering a diverse range of stakeholders to share health research, service innovations and policy developments related to refugee and migrant health.
The event was an initiative of the Refugee Migrant Health Partnership, which is a research network collaboration led by the Participatory Health Research Unit at UL and funded by the Department of Health.
Dr Kathleen Markey, Associate Professor at UL’s Department of Nursing and Midwifery, who led the seminar organising team commented: “The seminar, which was funded by the Health Research Board’s Conference and Event Sponsorship Scheme, saw an unprecedented level of interest from those working in the area of refugee and migrant health in Ireland and beyond. It provided an essential overview of national research which will help optimise refugee and migrant health research in Ireland into the future.”
Professor Deirdre McGrath, interim Dean of the Faculty of Education and Health Sciences, opened the event by warmly welcoming and reaffirming UL’s commitment to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and, in particular, SDG 3 which strives to 'ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages' through achieving universal health coverage and access to quality health care.
UL’s Participatory Health Research Unit is also part of the World Health Organisation (WHO) Collaborating Centre for Participatory Health Research with Refugees and Migrants. The event was delighted to welcome remarks from Dr Miriam Orcutt, Technical Officer with the WHO Health and Migration Programme in Geneva, who joined the seminar by video link.
Jim Walsh, Principal Officer in the Drugs Policy and Social Inclusion Unit at the Department of Health, contributed to a multi-stakeholder panel on the topic of ‘Local to Global Action for Refugee and Migrant Health’ and stated that “hearing the voices and experiences of refugees and migrants is crucial to developing health policies that cater for the diverse needs of the Irish population”.
Research presentations were interspersed with creative activities such as breathing, humming and singing as tasters of how music singing can connect diverse individuals in a shared experience in a group context. The conference participants were expertly guided by Professor Helen Phelan, Director of the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance and Co-Director of the Participatory Health Research Unit.
Sarbik Guha, doctoral scholar at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, also led seminar participants in a co-composed song that was co-created and performed with the Irish World Music Café participants attending the seminar. “Group discussions are the traditional research way of talking about the individual experiences but with songwriting as a participatory research method, these experiences got blended together to focus on the collective narrative of solidarity and collaborative messaging regarding healthcare,” he explained.
Presentations from Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) featured strongly along with academic research in the rich programme of parallel oral presentations.
Doras, the support and advocacy organisation for refugees and migrants in Ireland, is a key community partner in the Refugee and Migrant Health Partnership.
Ahmed Hussan Mohamed, Community Sponsorship Coordinator with Doras, emphasised the importance of this annual seminar.
“This national event brings together the synergy of NGOs working in this area and enables us to take stock of the differences that NGOs are making to create more equitable healthcare and improving health services.”
The final plenary launched a new database available to the public which provides resources about refugee and migrant health research.
Marie Boyle, General Manager of Social Inclusion in the HSE Mid-West Region noted how valuable this database resource is to support time-poor HSE and NGO professionals who are seeking evidence to inform services, business cases and funding applications.
Professor Anne MacFarlane, Co-Director of the Participatory Health Research Unit and Chair of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Participatory Health Research with Refugees and Migrants at UL offered closing remarks emphasising the potential for participatory research to offer more humane, inclusive research approaches; creative, person-centred spaces and impactful outcomes to improve health research, services and policy.
Further information on the WHO Collaborating Centre for Participatory Health Research with Refugees and Migrants can be found here.
