Taking primary care to refugee children: the impact of delivering a health engagement session in the community for local refugees

Objective: To increase both health engagement and health literacy in a severely deprived refugee population who have extremely poor engagement rates with the health service. This population is not effectively reached by many of the usual methods - such as text message reminders and online booking services - and so we aimed to engage them by delivering a half-day session in a local community centre, during which several basic primary care services were available. These services consisted of child and adult flu vaccines, baby weight checks, blood pressure and height measurements, and liver screening for the adults. Methods: The session was planned by a local GP practice, in partnership with a nearby hotel that was housing some refugees, a volunteer-led refugee cooking group and the integrated paediatrics team from the local hospital. It took place in a community centre. The GP surgery created a poster to promote the event which was sent to the hotel and distributed amongst the refugees to spread awareness. The GPs from the practice delivered the medical services on the day, whilst the paediatric team set up activities to entertain the children, which included some discussions and activities aimed at educating them about some of the different NHS services and when they should use them. The volunteer-led cooking group prepared a fresh lunch in the kitchen facilities for everyone who attended, providing healthy food for so many of these refugee families who are living in hotels with no kitchen access, no fridge or microwave and no dining area. During the session the details of all those who took up any of the health services were recorded, and these numbers have been used to assess the impact of the session. Results: 17 children had their flu vaccine (who would otherwise not have accessed this service) and 10 baby weight checks were carried out. A total of 27 children took part in the activities run by members of the paediatrics team, amongst which 10 of them engaged in the discussion and colouring activities based around teaching them which health service (i.e. A&E/999, GP or 111) would be most appropriate for them in various situations. Anecdotal evidence from the health professionals in attendance revealed that several positive discussions were also had with parents who had questions on topics such as weaning and use of vitamins. Conclusion: A significant number of refugee children and their parents were reached by this session, resulting in many of them having important flu vaccines in addition to the vast benefits of simply being in a room with medical staff from whom they could seek other health advice. The positive impact of connecting these families with health services that so many of them need but are unable to access, cannot be underestimated. Introduction of more sessions like this with a multi-faceted approach to target not only things like vaccine rates and healthcare engagement, but also broader health literacy and education has the potential to be invaluable in the drive to reach these often-neglected communities.