By CHARLENE MACAULAY
A PROGRAM run by Macedon Ranges and North Western Melbourne Medicare Local is up-skilling more than 100 local General Practitioners working with the region’s growing refugee and asylum seeker population.
The Refugee Health program provides clinically trained Medicare Local staff who make regular visits to GPs in the region, and provide them with detailed information and training on specific medical issues migrants may face.
Practical sessions show the region’s GPs how to create care plans and provide their patients with appropriate information, with referrals forming a large component of the program.
Melbourne’s West has the second highest figures in the state for refugee and asylum seeker settlement and numbers are expected to grow in the next five years.
The program also runs across South Western Melbourne Medicare Local.
GP Karen Linton and state co-ordinator for the refugee health nurse program Lindy Marlow set up Refugee Health and said the program had been well received by GPs.
Dr Linton, has worked at the Western Region Health Centre’s Joslin Clinic for the past 10 years and does refugee health screenings and ongoing care as part of her role, said there was a big need to provide targeted health services for refugees and asylum seekers.
“It’s around trying to support people who have come from different cultural backgrounds and speak different languages and require interpreters, who need to be welcomed and supported around their health care and helping health providers provide an excellence in care,” she said.
Macedon Ranges and North Western Melbourne Medicare Local CEO Ross Joyce added: “Refugee Health is an example of the importance of tailoring programs that are customised to the needs of the population and the significant health related issues of specific groups.”
