A DDRESSING THE N EED FOR C ULTURALLY AND L INGUISTICALLY A PPROPRIATE H EALTH I NFORMATION FOR N EWLY A RRIVING R EFUGEE P OPULATIONS Kate W. Flewelling, MLIS NLM Associate Fellow November 17, 2008 Project leaders: Gale Dutcher, NLM Stacey Arnesen, NLM Resource person: John Scott, Center for Public Service Communication

P ROJECT P ROPOSAL “BRIEF DESCRIPTION: This project addresses the issue of how refugee health coordinators, and other health professionals who work with refugee and asylee clients, address problems associated with the need to find/develop linguistic and culturally appropriate materials for newly arriving refugees for which there is little or no written health information.” G ALE D UTCHER AND S TACEY A RNESEN, SIS A SSOCIATE P ROJECT P ROPOSAL, J ANUARY 2008

M AJOR T ASKS Researched refugee process and health communication issues Wrote information- needs assessment Conducted follow-up interviews Analyzed results

M AIN Q UESTIONS How do those who serve new refugee populations find information about and for their clientele/patients? What are some preferred sources for such information? How are new refugee health information materials created and distributed? To what extent is existing refugee health information freely available and accessible? What are the current unmet information needs as related to refugee health?

I NFORMATION N EEDS A SSESSMENT Designed in consultation with SIS, John Scott, Jackie Coughlan, Ellen Howard, Ann O’Fallon, Jennifer Cochran Sent by RHIN® to Ann O’Fallon, who coordinated dissemination.

RESPONSES 36 assessment responses 10 follow-up interviews, inc. 1 who did not do assessment 15 states State Refugee Health Coordinators (5) Clinicians (16) Administrators (7) Social Workers (5) VOLAGs (3)

L EARNING A BOUT THE C OMMUNITY Web search Community members Favorite web site Local resettlement agency Colleague Government agency

H EALTH I NFORMATION F OR THE C OMMUNITY State and local public health agencies Web search RHIN® EthnoMed Healthy Roads Media

C REATING MATERIALS Modifying existing materials Creating plain language English materials Paying for translation In-house/volunteer translation

F ORMATS FOR I NFORMATION Print In-person Videos Audio Low literacy English Source of image: Heartland Alliance Used with permission.

I SSUES Literacy and health literacy Availability of existing materials Funding for translation of materials Finding qualified translators/interpreters Time to look for existing materials Information overload for newcomers Diversity of clientele

“more information on more topics in more refugee languages related to a broad range of issues”

W HAT T HEY N EED Time and money. Translated materials in advance of new arrivals. One stop shopping for materials. Nonprint materials. Topics: Disease information: TB, malaria Health system orientation Preventative care: home safety, food safety, hygiene

RECOMMENDATIONS to RHIN Promote RHIN® through relevant listservs and professional groups. Provide site index to Google so that relevant searches in Google map to RHIN®. Include list of trusted partners and document producers on RHIN® homepage. Create RSS feeds for topics, languages and searches to push content to users. Work with appropriate agencies – federal, state, and voluntary – to develop standards for creation of new materials and to encourage creators to submit materials to RHIN®.

THANKS Questions? Kate W. Flewelling This research was supported in part by an appointment to the NLM Associate Fellowship Program sponsored by the National Library of Medicine and administered by the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education.