Access to Sexual Health Services for the Somali Community
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Why don't the Somali Refugee Communinity Access Sexual Health Services
IRAS ID
157905
Contact name
Barbara Howard-Hunt
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Birmingham City University
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 8 months, 1 days
Research summary
The United Kingdom hosts the largest Somali population in Europe but health needs assessment data for those seeking asylum is extremely difficult to access. A conservative estimate indicates that there are about 35,000 Somalis living in the West Midlands region most of them arriving as a result of the civil conflict which decimated their country. It is known that many refugees bring with them significant health problems that are related to their experiences of war and migration including HIV and other notifiable diseases (Carswell et.al, 2011). The Somali refugee community may present with a wide range of health issues and Somali refugee women in particular, may have faced systematic gender abuse, including rape (Moret et al. 2006). Some of them will be infected with sexually transmitted infections including HIV/AIDS and it is thought that many Somalis do not know that they are infected and therefore are not accessing treatments, therefore infection is increasing(Connor and Bean 2013.
Such is the stigma around sexuality that unlike some other African groups sexuality, including sexual health, is rarely discussed within the Somali community. There is therefore an urgent need to ascertain the sexual health needs of people from Somalia whose culture and complex migration experiences means that their sexual health issues are not known and therefore are not being addressed. This is significant as practice and the policies that inform them, traditionally, treat refugees as a homogenous group, failing to appreciate and respond to the differences between groups of people whose cultural and religious beliefs may act as a barrier to accessing the services needed.
REC name
West Midlands - Coventry & Warwickshire Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
14/WM/1066
Date of REC Opinion
13 Oct 2014
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion