Resources and support for Health Professionals

Manaya Pride Program

Category: LGBTIQA+

Provides free mental health and psychosocial support services to LGBTIQAPSB+ Forcibly Displaced people.

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Perinatal Anxiety & Depression Australia (PANDA) – National Helpline

Category: Maternal Health

FIND SOMEONE TO TALK TO, MONDAY TO SATURDAY. 1300 726 306

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Southwest Healthcare: Perinatal Emotional Health Program

Category: Maternal Health

The Perinatal Emotional Health Program (PEHP) is a voluntary program of South West Healthcare Mental Health and Wellbeing Services that provides family centred psychological care for women and or partners during pregnancy and up to one year post birth.

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Specialised and Intensive Services (SIS)

Specialised and Intensive Services (SIS) is a component of the Humanitarian Settlement Program (HSP) available to humanitarian entrants and other eligible visa holders who have complex needs. SIS offer clients short term needs-based support to help them access appropriate mainstream services and develop the necessary skills to manage their needs independently.

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Refugee Health Fellows Program

The Department of Health in Victoria has funded Refugee Health fellow positions to provide support and advice to health professionals. Fellows are available by telephone and can often arrange to see you in your practice. Fellows can offer assistance with diagnosis and management, and can provide information on referral pathways for refugee and asylum seeker clients.

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Refugee Health Program

Speak with your local Refugee Health Program about how they can support you. Refugee health nurses and allied health staff are located in community health centres in areas of high refugee settlement. Refugee health nurses can provide advice on primary and specialist referral, as well as referral to relevant community groups and community services.

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Medical Practitioner Priority Line for free Interpreting services

Private medical practitioners and their practice staff can access free Interpreting Services to provide Medicare rebatable services to anyone in Australia who is eligible for Medicare. This service is available 24 hours a day, every day of the year.

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The Letter Says I May or May Not Be Eligible… It Is a Big Doubt and Frustrating:’ A Qualitative Study on Barriers and Facilitators to Children’s Oral Healthcare From the Perspective of Karen Refugee Parents in Victoria Health expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy (Balla and Takadamadla, 2024)

Category: Dental Oral Health

Abstract: Australia has a longstanding tradition of resettling refugees and individuals in humanitarian need. Among these, the Karen community from Southeast Asia is rapidly growing in Australia. The absence of data on the barriers they face in accessing dental services is concerning. This study explores the barriers and facilitators Karen refugees encounter when seeking oral healthcare for their children in Australia, aiming to understand their experiences.

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Free maternity resources for Health Professionals & Interpreters

Category: Maternal Health

The Stillbirth CRE is pleased to provide a suite of approved stillbirth prevention resources for use in the implementation and promotion of the Safer Baby Bundle. These evidence-based resources have been collaboratively designed for healthcare professionals and interpreters working with pregnant women. The Stillbirth CRE has partnered with the leading professional colleges and research institutions across Australia to develop these resources.

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Partnering with families of refugee & migrant backgrounds

Category: Maternal Health

This course builds upon the established Safer Baby Bundle learning course to provide additional support to health professionals working with women and families of refugee and migrant backgrounds during pregnancy.

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Resource toolkit for refugee and migrant women accessing maternity services

Category: Maternal Health

This Toolkit aims to support health professionals to deliver timely, safe, quality and competent care for refugee and migrant women.

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Perinatal Anxiety & Depression Australia (PANDA) – Support in different languages

Category: Maternal Health

Get the support you need with resources translated into 40 languages.

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Designing mental health services for young people from refugee and migrant backgrounds

Category: Mental Health and Wellbeing

A tip sheet for mental health clinicians, counsellors and key workers working with children, young people and families from a refugee or asylum seeking background.

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Working with Children, Young People and Families from a Refugee and Asylum-seeking Background: A Tip Sheet

Category: Child Youth Health, Mental Health and Wellbeing

A tip sheet for mental health clinicians, counsellors and key workers working with children, young people and families from a refugee or asylum seeking background.

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Helpful information for GPs seeing a patient from refugee background

This resource was developed by the Refugee Health Network Queensland

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National Immunisation Program eligibility for refugees and humanitarian entrants

The Commonwealth guidance states that NIP vaccines are free for ‘refugees and humanitarian entrants of any age’.

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PHN Multicultural Framework

The PHN Multicultural Framework provides high-level guidance and best practice actions to support PHNs to deliver locally informed and relevant responses in partnership with other stakeholders.

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Catch up vaccinations

Category: Immunisations

The Immunisation Unit at the Department of Health has created a new webpage to support immunisers through the vaccination catch-up journey with their patients.

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Interpreting Services for PHN-Commissioned mental health services

Category: Mental Health and Wellbeing

As a provider of mental health services funded by a Primary Health Network, your organisation is now able to access interpreting Services funded by the Australian Government through the National Translating and Interpreting Services (TIS National).

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Healthcare for people from refugee backgrounds and people seeking asylum- RACGP

The RACGP recognises the complexity of health care needs of people from refugee backgrounds. General practitioners have a key role to play in supporting this group, but they need to be supported through access to interpreters, appropriate education and training, evidence-based research, a coordinated approach between health services, and guided by a national strategy.

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Working with patients from refugee background: GP Administration Tips

A brief guideline on GP Administration tips when working with patients from refugee backgrounds.

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Working effectively with interpreters to support families from refugee backgrounds

A brief guideline on how to work effectively with interpreters to support families from refugee backgrounds.

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The Australian Refugee Health Practice Guide

The Australian Refugee Health Practice Guide can be used by doctors, nurses and other primary care providers to inform on-arrival and ongoing health care for people from refugee backgrounds, including people seeking asylum.

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Migrant & Refugee Health Partnership Resources

Overview of cultural competence in professional education, training and standard setting for clinicians. Good practice approaches in facilitating primary health care delivery to migrants and refugees: The role of primary health networks.

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Ask Izzy

This resource provides links to many additional services including food, housing, material aid, health providers, counselling etc.

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HealthPathways Melbourne

HealthPathways offers clinicians locally agreed information to make the right decisions together with patients, at the point of care. The pathways are designed primarily for general practice teams, but are also available to specialists, allied health professionals, and other health professionals in your region.

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NSW Refugee Health Service

The NSW Refugee Health Service (RHS) is a state-wide service, funded by the Ministry of Health. It provides a range of clinical services and medical assessments for recently arrived refugees and asylum seekers. Activities also include policy input, research, projects and a range of health promotion initiatives.

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Appointment Translation

The NSW Multicultural Health Communication Service's online Appointment Reminder Translation Tool allows you to translate appointment details into your client's language.

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Multilingual printable appointment card

The multilingual appointment card has been developed by Cancer Council Victoria to help culturally and linguistically diverse Australians more easily access healthcare appointments.

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TIS National promotional materials catalogue

The Translating and Interpreting service (TIS National) provides a range of promotional materials to assist you and your clients to access our services. TIS National provides a range of promotional products in electronic format for you to view, print or save immediately.

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Health Translations

Health Translations is a free online library of high-quality translated Australian health and wellbeing information. Made for Australian health practitioners and people who work with culturally and linguistically diverse communities, the site provides quick access to a wealth of reliable resources.

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Easidose 

Easidose is a prescribing aid addressing language and literacy barriers. Easidose uses colour coding for medications, and picture based instructions for dose, frequency, duration and special conditions.

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General Practice Engagement Project

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.

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Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) Item

Refugee Health Assessment under MBS Items 701, 703, 705 and 707. This health assessment is for refugees and other humanitarian entrants who arrive in Australia with complex and unusual medical conditions resulting from their area of origin or previous living conditions. This assessment is separate from, and in addition to, a medical assessment specifically for the grant of a Refugee or Humanitarian visa.

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STAR-MH

The STAR-MH (Screening Tool for Asylum-seeker and Refugee Mental Health) is a simple mental health screening tool developed for non-mental health trained workers to identify likely post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and major depressive disorder in their asylum-seeking and new refugee clients.

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Is your practice refugee health ready?

This guide provides a quick-reference guide to General Practices considering or currently providing health care services to people from a refugee background. It is not an exhaustive list but aims to serve as a tool to support health care for this population group and the development of appropriate primary care services.

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Competency Standards Framework for Clinicians

The Competency Standards Framework (the Framework) establishes recommended and optimal cultural responsiveness competency standards for clinicians in all healthcare settings. The Framework is aimed exclusively at clinicians and inform the development of clinical education, training, professional development curricula and competency standards for clinicians.

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Refugee Health Assessment

The Refugee Health Assessment Template 2018 (the Template) considers the primary care context including workflow and whole of practice approaches and will assist primary care providers to deliver high quality on arrival health care for people from refugee backgrounds.

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2022 RACGP curriculum and syllabus for Australian general practice

The curriculum and syllabus describe the key competency and learning outcomes of GP education. It informs the development and delivery of training programs including CPD and guides learners by suggesting learning modalities and educational resources as they work towards Fellowship. It also serves as a guide to assist with remediation and GPs returning to work after absence.

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Comprehensive post-arrival health assessment

Recommendations for comprehensive post-arrival health assessment for people from refugee-like backgrounds. On behalf of the Australasian Society for Infectious Diseases and Refugee Health Network of Australia.

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Trends and disparities in perinatal health outcomes among women from refugee backgrounds in Victoria, Australia: A population-based study (Yeshitila and Gold, 2024)

Category: Maternal Health

Women from refugee backgrounds generally experience poorer pregnancy-related outcomes compared to host populations. The article examines the trend and disparities in adverse perinatal outcomes among women of refugee background using population-based data from 2003 to 2017.

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The Mental Health and Wellbeing of Hazara Refugees in Australia: A Scoping Review (Sultani et al., 2025)

Category: Mental Health and Wellbeing

Abstract Hazara refugees are highly vulnerable to trauma and other mental health challenges due to sustained ethnic and religious persecution. The post-migration difficulties experienced in Australia significantly heighten the risk of exacerbating these outcomes, while also highlighting the importance of identifying the various strengths and strategies that foster wellbeing. We conducted a scoping review to explore the mental health and wellbeing of Hazara refugees in Australia. A systematic database search was conducted across CINAHL Complete, MEDLINE, PsycINFO, Scopus, and Web of Science. Twenty-one articles met the eligibility criteria and were included in this review. Our findings draw attention to the distinct gendered mental health and wellbeing experiences of Hazara refugees. We highlight the emotional and psychological harm caused by visa insecurity and restrictions post-migration, as well as the detrimental impacts of racism and discrimination. We also discuss barriers to accessing support services, and identify key strategies used by Hazara refugees to promote their wellbeing in Australia. Lastly, findings highlight the collective experiences of suffering and growth experienced by Hazara refugees, and the cumulative impacts that all stages of forced migration may have on post-migration outcomes. In doing so, this review provides a critical overview of the mental health and wellbeing experiences of Hazara refugees in Australia and provides important recommendations for researchers and practitioners working with this population.

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Cultural safety and belonging for refugee background women attending group pregnancy care: An Australian qualitative study

Category: Maternal Health

Refugee women experience higher incidence of childbirth complications and poor pregnancy outcomes. Resettled refugee women often face multiple barriers accessing pregnancy care and navigating health systems in high income countries. A community-based model of group pregnancy care for Karen women from Burma was co-designed by health services in consultation with Karen families in Melbourne, Australia.

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Finding our own ways of working together: reflections on implementing and facilitating a multidisciplinary and equity-orientated model of Group Pregnancy Care for women of refugee background.

Category: Maternal Health

This paper explores professional staff experiences of implementing and facilitating a multidisciplinary equity-oriented model of Group Pregnancy Care for women of refugee background. This model was the first of its kind in Australia and one of the first worldwide.

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Trauma-Informed Care and Equity in Group Pregnancy Care for Women in Refugee Background: Reflections from the workforce.

Category: Maternal Health

For women and families of refugee background having a baby in Australia, trauma-related experiences contribute to maternal and neonatal health inequities. Group Pregnancy Care for women of refugee background is a new model of care that was codesigned with communities of refugee background, to incorporate a trauma-informed approach to care. The aim of this paper is to explore how trauma-informed care is understood by Group Pregnancy Care professional staff.

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Lost in translation: using standardised self-report measures in cross-cultural research

The goal of this resource is to provide guidance regarding the use of standardised self-report measures in research involving people of refugee and migrant backgrounds.

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Immunisation Fact Sheet: For case workers working with refugees and asylum seekers

Category: Immunisations

This information sheet is to inform case workers in Victoria about immunisation policy and considerations for people of refugee backgrounds.

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The Social Determinants of mental health and disorder: evidence, prevention and recommendations

Category: Mental Health and Wellbeing

In this paper we provide a roadmap to address the social determinants that cause mental ill health. Relying as far as possible on high-quality evidence, we first map out the literature that supports a causal link between social determinants and later mental health outcomes.

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Chronic health conditions among culturally and linguistically diverse Australians, 2021

People from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds are identified as a priority population in a number of key Australian Government health strategies. This web report is part of a program of work on the health status of CALD people in Australia and presents data on the prevalence of chronic conditions reported by CALD Australians in the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ 2021 Census of Population and Housing.

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