Engaging and supporting general practice in the delivery of accessible and appropriate health care for people from refugee backgrounds, including those seeking asylum.
In late 2014, the Network began work on a dedicated project to engage and support more general practices in Victoria to work with people from refugee backgrounds. This project builds on the work of many others in the sector, including Refugee Health Nurses, Refugee Health Fellows and the former Medicare Locals, who have done substantial capacity building with general practice to ensure accessible and appropriate health care in general practice for people from refugee backgrounds.
The Primary Care Project aims to increase the number of general practices who are able, willing and confident to work with people from refugee backgrounds. The project is taking a whole of practice approach and considers the role of general practitioners, practice nurses, allied health and non-clinical staff including practice managers and reception staff in the delivery of health care to people from refugee backgrounds.
Read the detailed rationale and Project Brief.
Read the project Background Briefing Paper
The project is guided by an expert Project Advisory Group. Read the details of the Project Advisory Group and the Terms of Reference.
Read the April 2015 Progress Update.
Read the October 2015 Progress Update including details of our project partners and more.
Updates about the project will be provided in the Network e-Bulletin and on this page.
This project has been approved by the Victorian Foundation for Survivors of Torture (Foundation House) Institutional Ethics Committee. Read the Plain Language Statement.
The project team have been developing a set of tools to support general practice engagement. We have also compiled online resources for general practices. We are currently trialling these tools and resources and they may be further refined. Click HERE to access the resources.
Project Publications
- FINAL REPORT
- CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS
- Samantha Furneaux, Philippa Duell-Piening, I-Hao Cheng, Sarah Christensen, Sue Jaraba, Maria Loupetis, Ruth Varenica and Sue Casey, 2016, ‘Developing a framework and tools for engaging and supporting general practice in refugee health care‘, poster presented at Primary Health Care Research Conference, June 2016, Canberra
- Samantha Furneaux, Philippa Duell-Piening, Sue Casey, I-Hao Cheng and Nilakshi Gunatillaka, ‘Engaging general practice in refugee health: a literature review‘, poster presented at Primary Health Care Research Conference, July 2015, Adelaide
For further information about the project, please contact Samantha Furneaux, Sector Development and Policy Advisor – Primary Care, on (03) 9389 8915 or
