Communication is crucial in ensuring patients understand instructions, warnings, and other significant details that can help enhance life quality. This review will identify practices and interventions in the United States that improve the delivery of healthcare and language access service for limited English proficiency (LEP) refugees. To provide a comprehensive understanding of the topic, examining the current status of US refugees and their healthcare experiences is important.
The number of refugees in living in the United States can increase or decrease depending on the political stability of other nations and the urgency of the problems they are facing. Different countries have varied procedures and legal requirements that can either encourage or discourage asylum seeking. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the US has one of the highest numbers of refugees in the world (Feinberg et al., 2020). As of 2020, there were approximately 26 million refugees worldwide. In the US, there were more than 79,000 refugees and asylum-seekers arriving in the US in that year alone with about 60 percent being LEP (Feinberg et al., 2020). The United States serves refugees from various countries around the world, including Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, Somalia, and others. The variability of refugee populations may pose challenges for the US healthcare system in addressing their unique healthcare needs, including language and cultural barriers (Feinberg et al., 2020). While Language Access Services (LAS) and culturally appropriate care are essential for all refugee populations, the specific needs and challenges may vary based on the refugees’ country of origin and cultural background.
Among these refugees, a significant proportion is LEP, with language barriers being a major impediment to healthcare access. Language proficiency affects health literacy because patients are likely to follow physician directives if they understand the provided procedures. LEP refugees often experience communication barriers, difficulty understanding medical information, and limited access to healthcare services, leading to poor health outcomes (Feinberg et al., 2020). LEP and heath literacy are crucial factors that affect the ability of refugees in living a health life even when they are still receiving treatment.
Various organizations, including public health clinics, community health centers, and hospitals, provide healthcare for refugees in the U.S. However, healthcare providers face several challenges when caring for refugees, including a lack of training on refugee health, limited resources for hospital staff, and inadequate language access services and support (Khullar & Chokshi, 2019). Many providers are unaware of refugees’ unique lifestyles and struggles and are unfamiliar with their cultural beliefs and practices. As a result, providers may struggle to deliver culturally appropriate healthcare, leading to dissatisfaction and mistrust among refugee patients.
Culturally appropriate healthcare is essential to healthcare delivery, particularly for LEP refugees, who face numerous barriers to accessing healthcare services. Culturally appropriate healthcare involves recognizing and respecting patients’ cultural beliefs, practices, and values and tailoring healthcare services to meet their specific needs (Matlin et al., 2018). Language access services (LAS) and support play a key role in ensuring delivery of culturally appropriate healthcare for LEP refugees by facilitating effective communication between patients and the healthcare team. For instance, refugees are likely to experience challenges if they only speak on language that doctors cannot understand which means that healthcare do not have clear strategies to deal with such issues (Bang et al., 2023). Language access services are provided to individuals with limited English proficiency, especially in healthcare settings, to ensure that language barriers do not hinder access to care.
The language access barriers in healthcare can create significant challenges for LEP patients and may result in health disparities. Culturally appropriate healthcare recognizes the importance of addressing cultural values and practices in healthcare delivery to provide respectful and responsive care. For LEP refugees, language access services and culturally appropriate healthcare are particularly important to ensure that they receive quality care that meets their unique linguistic and cultural needs (Matlin et al., 2018). By providing language access services and culturally appropriate care, healthcare providers can improve health outcomes for LEP refugees and reduce health disparities.
Language access services and support for LEP refugees is importance, however, it not clear what strategies and practices should healthcare team use to deal with language barriers.
Although there are existing practices, interventions, resources, and guides available worldwide for culturally appropriate healthcare that meets LAS needs, it is unclear which practices are available in the US for its unique refugee population. It is also unclear which practices are best to meet the needs of US LEP refugees. This systematic review aims to fill this gap by identifying practices in the last 10 years that have improved healthcare and language access services for LEP refugees living in the U.S.
Overall, this systematic review provides critical insights into the current healthcare status for LEP refugees in the U.S., highlights the challenges healthcare providers face, and identifies interventions to improve language access services and support. Results from this review will provide information and guidance for healthcare professionals providing care to LEP refugees at the primary and secondary healthcare levels. The findings of this review will help inform future research and policy initiatives aimed at enhancing healthcare delivery for LEP refugees in the US.
References
Bang, S. H., Huang, Y. C., Kuo, H. J., Cho, E. S., & GarcÃa, A. A. (2023). Health status and Healthcare Access of Southeast Asian refugees in the United States: An integrative review. Public health nursing (Boston, Mass.). Web.
Feinberg, I., O’Connor, M. H., Owen-Smith, A., Ogrodnick, M. M., & Rothenberg, R. (2020). The relationship between refugee health status and language, literacy, and time spent in the United States. HLRP: Health Literacy Research and Practice, 4(4), e230-e236. Web.
Khullar, D., & Chokshi, D. A. (2019). Challenges for immigrant health in the USA—the road to crisis. The Lancet, 393(10186), 2168-2174. Web.
Matlin, S. A., Depoux, A., Schütte, S., Flahault, A., & Saso, L. (2018). Migrants’ and refugees’ health: towards an agenda of solutions. Public Health Reviews, 39(1), 1-55. Web.