Bias Blind Spot for Refugees in Health Care?​ Cultural Humility and Trauma-Informed Care for Refugees in the United States

Abstract

Refugees frequently face complicated health-care experiences related to language gaps, cultural differences, prejudice, stigma, and trauma histories compared to other groups. Evidence strongly supports that these factors exacerbate health-care inequality for refugees. Although these challenges have been acknowledged by the health-care community and in academia, many attempts to find solutions have been primarily focused on providing health-care professionals brief instances of direct interaction with refugees, and the research has shown that these attempts have not increased cultural humility nor competence in trauma-informed care. Rather, the evidence we gathered supports a more holistic method that addresses the deficit of cultural humility and trauma-informed care at its core. Thus, our action plan aims to increase equitable health-care to refugees through a patient-centered, multi-faceted strategy that integrates trauma-informed and culturally-humble education, community engagement, and improving health-care communication into society.