Page 121 - S. Ličen, I. Karnjuš, & M. Prosen (Eds.). (2019). Women, migrations and health: Ensuring transcultural healthcare. Koper, University of Primorska Press.
P. 121
Migrant Women’s Perspectives on Reproductive Health Issues and Their Healthcare Encounters
the highest attainable standard of health for everyone in their population
(Pace, 2011), significant debates remain over the extent to which migrants
share the same rights as non-migrants in relation to accessing healthcare.
From this perspective, migrants clearly provide organisational challenges to
healthcare systems across the EU member states since many of those sys-
tems are not prepared to give appropriate healthcare to so many culturally
diverse patients. Any healthcare system’s ability to respond within a reason-
able time and holistically to migrant women’s specific needs rests on its abil-
ity to identify and prioritise those needs and associated risks (Ruppenthal,
Tuck, & Gagnon, 2005). Exclusion in any way from healthcare means that
women encounter delayed access to screening, treatment and care, limited
access to contraception and pregnancy termination and heightened levels
of discrimination and gender-based violence, all of which affects women’s
health and exacerbates health disparities (Smith et al., 2016).
When seeking to access the healthcare system, migrants, especially new
arrivals, face barriers imposed by personal factors like age, sex, socio-eco-
nomic status, ethnicity, language ability, proximity to healthcare services, so-
cial exclusion, health-seeking behaviour and health beliefs. In addition, bar-
riers at the healthcare system level include public health policy and the legal
status of migrants within the host country’s health system, as well as specifics
of the individual health system (Hargreaves & Friedland, 2013). Hargreaves
and Friedland (2013) also categorised key barriers in accessing healthcare ser-
vices for newly arrived migrants by dividing them into two categories (Ta-
ble 1). A similar division into two categories was presented by Nørredam and
Krasnik (2011) where the first category ‘formal barriers to access’ was associ-
ated with health policies and the organisation of health systems. The second
category ‘informal barriers to access’ was associated with language, commu-
nication, socio-cultural factors and ‘newness’ or the complex interaction of
these factors.
By overcoming at least some of these barriers, healthcare professionals
strive to ensure culturally sensitive healthcare for migrant women. Bjarna-
son, Mick, Thompson, and Cloyd (2009) emphasise it is imperative in serving
the unique and diverse needs of patients, especially those who are most vul-
nerable, as women migrants are, that nurses, midwives, medical doctors and
other healthcare professionals understand the importance of cultural differ-
ences by valuing, incorporating and examining their own health-related val-
ues and beliefs and those of their healthcare organisations, for only then can
they support the principle of respect for persons and the ideal of transcul-
tural care. It is a legal and moral obligation for all healthcare professionals
119
the highest attainable standard of health for everyone in their population
(Pace, 2011), significant debates remain over the extent to which migrants
share the same rights as non-migrants in relation to accessing healthcare.
From this perspective, migrants clearly provide organisational challenges to
healthcare systems across the EU member states since many of those sys-
tems are not prepared to give appropriate healthcare to so many culturally
diverse patients. Any healthcare system’s ability to respond within a reason-
able time and holistically to migrant women’s specific needs rests on its abil-
ity to identify and prioritise those needs and associated risks (Ruppenthal,
Tuck, & Gagnon, 2005). Exclusion in any way from healthcare means that
women encounter delayed access to screening, treatment and care, limited
access to contraception and pregnancy termination and heightened levels
of discrimination and gender-based violence, all of which affects women’s
health and exacerbates health disparities (Smith et al., 2016).
When seeking to access the healthcare system, migrants, especially new
arrivals, face barriers imposed by personal factors like age, sex, socio-eco-
nomic status, ethnicity, language ability, proximity to healthcare services, so-
cial exclusion, health-seeking behaviour and health beliefs. In addition, bar-
riers at the healthcare system level include public health policy and the legal
status of migrants within the host country’s health system, as well as specifics
of the individual health system (Hargreaves & Friedland, 2013). Hargreaves
and Friedland (2013) also categorised key barriers in accessing healthcare ser-
vices for newly arrived migrants by dividing them into two categories (Ta-
ble 1). A similar division into two categories was presented by Nørredam and
Krasnik (2011) where the first category ‘formal barriers to access’ was associ-
ated with health policies and the organisation of health systems. The second
category ‘informal barriers to access’ was associated with language, commu-
nication, socio-cultural factors and ‘newness’ or the complex interaction of
these factors.
By overcoming at least some of these barriers, healthcare professionals
strive to ensure culturally sensitive healthcare for migrant women. Bjarna-
son, Mick, Thompson, and Cloyd (2009) emphasise it is imperative in serving
the unique and diverse needs of patients, especially those who are most vul-
nerable, as women migrants are, that nurses, midwives, medical doctors and
other healthcare professionals understand the importance of cultural differ-
ences by valuing, incorporating and examining their own health-related val-
ues and beliefs and those of their healthcare organisations, for only then can
they support the principle of respect for persons and the ideal of transcul-
tural care. It is a legal and moral obligation for all healthcare professionals
119
