The social circumstances of parents are critical to their experience of having a baby and refugee background families may encounter particular challenges. The study Having a Baby in a New Country was conducted in order to develop a better understanding of the issues facing refugee background families, focusing on Afghan women and men and health professionals in Melbourne’s southeast.
Women from CALD backgrounds are particularly vulnerable to developing emotional distress or mental health disorders in the perinatal period and they often do not receive the care they need.
The report from this project details the needs assessment, literature review, focus groups, pilot program and resources that were undertaken and developed to respond to high rates of type 2 diabetes in adults and dental decay in children from Afghan community in Mildura.
Between June 2016 and June 2017, Health Issues Centre and the Victorian Refugee Health Network received funding from the Victorian Women’s Benevolent Trust and Australian Communities Foundation to undertake the second of a three stage project on the accessibility of health information by refugee communities in Victoria.
WOMHEn multicultural health educator workforce, continued Phase II of WOMHEn Project by delivering health education sessions to migrant and refugee women in 18 different community languages to address barriers to vaccine literacy and uptake, vaccine hesitancy, and service navigation of migrant and refugee women, including those who are carers, of childbearing age or pregnant, and living in rural and regional Victoria.
