MORRA Study V2
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Health care moments of opportunity: a review of evidence and community dialogue to explore responsive health care for refugees and people seeking asylum in the UK
IRAS ID
314554
Contact name
Andrew F Smith
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Trust
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
NIHR132961, NIHR Journals Library; CRD42021271464, PROSPERO (systematic review only)
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 5 months, 31 days
Research summary
Refugees and people seeking asylum often have diverse and additional health care needs, experience substantial barriers accessing health care, and report poor health care experiences. Barriers are often interconnected, can relate to attitudes in receiving countries, fear, and poor language support, as well as knowledge about healthcare entitlements (amongst patients and service staff).
This study brings together evidence on the active steps that organisations and frontline workers are taking to address these barriers and improve access to health care for refugees and people seeking asylum.
Our work has four stages:
(1) Workshops with local individuals who are refugees or seeking asylum in the UK and stakeholders (statutory, voluntary/community, private sector) across health and wider society to identify opportunities for picking up on health care needs and improving health care responses.
(2) A systematic review to identify and assess existing evidence on interventions and practices that address barriers to health care for refugees and people seeking asylum.
(3) Case studies learning from services in the UK and internationally that are taking active steps to address barriers to health care for refugees and people seeking asylum. We will talk to people who deliver these services to understand what they do, how they work well across culture and language, and what skills, training, relationships, local or national contexts have been necessary to work this way. We will talk to people who use these services to explore their perceptions of good care and their experiences interacting with the service. We may also observe practice. We will talk to people one-to-one or in small groups and use professional translators where required.
(4) Series of stakeholder (e.g. refugee community, frontline workers, commissioners) discussions to share learning from this research and explore what would be necessary to implement new practices in a UK context.REC name
London - London Bridge Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
22/PR/0603
Date of REC Opinion
30 May 2022
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion