Summary

Refugees and people seeking asylum are just like you and me – good health and wellbeing is critical to them, and it is supported by the circumstances that they live in – the building blocks of health. Unfortunately it is often, although not always the case that these people have poorer health than the people living here in the UK. This is often because of the challenging circumstances where they have come from, because of forcible displacement and a challenging journey across the world, and the challenges and uncertainties of seeking asylum or living as a refugee in a new country.

This section also shows that it is possible to support people to improve their health in these circumstances as a key element of rebuilding their life more widely.

Specifically:

• Services need to continue to identify people’s needs in order to prevent ill health and to safeguard them from exploitation. As such, it is key that services continue to assess their physical and mental health needs. It is also key to support these groups with the preventative benefits of vaccination across a range of communicable diseases to protect them and those around them across a range of communicable diseases. All this requires that Gloucestershire continues to support these groups’ access to health and care services – through cultural sensitivity, language services, and trauma-informed care to reduce stigma.
• In addition to these services, it is important to recognise that access to health and care can only be the start. It is crucial to build on this, supporting these groups to settle here by promoting the five ways to wellbeing and to take up support for positive and negative health behaviours: to quit smoking, volunteer in their communities, exercise, connect with others.
• Finally, it is key for us to continue to make the case for them to be able to access housing and the other building blocks of health that are the foundation for them to settle in and contribute to the UK.