Online launch of the Handbook of Refugee Health

31/05/22
Events

A recording of this event is available here.

A free online version of the handbook is available if you copy and paste the link below.

https://insights.taylorandfrancis.com/ukraine#group-section-Refugee-health-resources-eZqrREoYdX

On 23 June 2022: Online launch of the Handbook of Refugee Health: for Healthcare Professionals and Humanitarian Providing Care for Forced Migrants, the first edition of which was published at the end of 2021.

This book helps to recognize the rights of refugees and provides a framework to identify and approach health needs, from basic elements like service mapping and initial interventions to more complex elements of ongoing healthcare and support and broader topics such as migration public health, migration policy and health systems. Beyond biomedical frameworks, it draws on socio-ecological models to inform assessments and integrated models of care to improve health and health equity. Set out in three comprehensive sections: public health theory (Part 1), applied public health (Part 2), and clinical approaches (Part 3), this book draws on multiple disciplines and insights from humanitarians, academics, policy experts, and clinicians from diverse contexts, with expertise in forced migration, to create an accessible reference tool to inform healthcare professionals’ interactions with forcibly displaced individuals and populations in all contexts for both high and low resource countries. Apart from providing information across the spectrum of health issues, clinical specialities and global contexts, it discusses associated areas, including human rights and law, public health, medical anthropology and cultural awareness.

A recording of this event is available here.


Introductory remarks

Karl Blanchet – Introduction to the webinar, Geneva Centre for Humanitarian Studies 
Ibrahim Abubakar, Senior Editor, Handbook of Refugee Health – Introduction to the book

Miriam Orcutt – Lead editor of report and Chair of meeting

Panelists (co-editors, Handbook of Refugee Health) 

  • Clare Shortall
  • Aula Abbara
  • Sarah Walpole
  • Sylvia Garry
  • Anna Miller

Speakers biographies:

Dr Miriam Orcutt (MBBS, MSc, FFPH), Lead Editor, is a Technical Advisor at WHO for the Health and Migration Programme, and Honorary Senior Research Fellow in Forced Migration and Health at the Institute for Global Health, University College London.

Dr Clare Shortall (BSc MBBS MRCPCH DMCC DTMH MSc)  is a Health Adviser for Première Urgence Internationale (PUI), France.

Dr Sarah Walpole (BSc, MBChB, MRCP, PG Cert, MSc(Res), DTM&H) is currently working as a Specialist Registrar in Infectious Diseases and General Internal Medicine in the North East of England Deanery.

Dr Aula Abbara MBBS DTMH MD(Res) is a consultant in Infectious Diseases/ General Internal Medicine at Imperial College NHS Healthcare Trust, London and an Honorary Researcher at Imperial College.

Dr Sylvia Garry (BA BMBCh MRCPCH DTMH MSc (PH) MFPH) is a Public Health Consultant in North London in the National Health Service (NHS).

Dr Rita Issa, BSc MBBS DTMPH is an Academic Clinical Fellow in General Practice in London and Clinical Research Fellow on Climate Change, Health and Migration with Lancet Migration.

Professor Ibrahim Abubakar (MBBS, DPH, MSc, PhD, FFPH, FRCPE, FRCP., FMedSci) is Director of the University College London Institute for Global Health (IGH) and Chair of Lancet Migration, and previously of the UCL-Lancet Commission on Migration and Health. He is an NIHR Senior Investigator and an honorary professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. 

Professor Karl Blanchet is the Director of the Geneva Centre of Humanitarian Studies, Academic Director of InZone and Professor in Humanitarian Public Health at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva.


Background

The numbers of people who have been forcibly displaced globally continue to increase as a result of conflict, humanitarian and climate-related disasters, with UNHCR estimating that the number globally crossed the milestone of 100 million for the first time on record (UNHCR, May 2022).  Forced displacement occurs both within and outside of national borders and has numerous impacts on individual health, as well as on local health systems and global health policy response. The recent escalation in conflict in Ukraine alone has resulted in at least 8 million internally displaced and more than 6.5 million refugees (IOM, 9 May 2022); protracted forced displacement from Syria has seen 6.5 million refugees and 6.7 million displaced internally, with 80% of displaced households uprooted for four or more years (IDMC, May 2022).  To respond to the health needs of those forcibly displaced, healthcare professionals, humanitarians and policy advisors need to be aware of a range of issues relating to migration public health, migration policy and health systems, as well as key health concerns which those who are forcibly displaced face at different points in their displacement.  

Venue: Online event