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Copyright

Emer McGowan; Sarah Quinn; Rolf Vardal;

Published On

2025-09-09

Page Range

pp. 77–98

Language

  • English

Print Length

22 pages

3. Providing Person-Centred Care, Creating Therapeutic Space and Recognizing the Needs of Service Users

Chapter of: Interprofessional Approach to Refugee Health: A Practical Guide for Interdisciplinary Health and Social Care Teams(pp. 77–98)
The health needs of refugees and the barriers and challenges that can prevent them from accessing health and social care differ from those of the host population over the life-course. Health and social care professionals can play a significant role in supporting the resettlement of refugees. Taking a person- or people-centred approach is central to this aim. Adaptable, well-trained and culturally competent health and social care workers are needed to provide services that are responsive to the unique health requirements of refugees. Provision of person-centred care can help to build trust between health professionals and refugees, both at the time of arrival and more importantly during longer-term refugee settlement. This chapter explores how health professionals can take a person-centred approach when providing care and services for people with refugee experience. It discusses the concept of therapeutic space and how this can help to facilitate communication and build effective working relationships with service users. This chapter is aimed at health professionals who are new to the field of refugee health or those with an interest in the area who have not yet gained practical experience.

Contributors

Emer McGowan

(author)
Assistant Professor in Interprofessional Education in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Trinity College Dublin
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2442-3043

Emer McGowan is an Assistant Professor in Interprofessional Education in the Faculty of Health Sciences, Trinity College Dublin. Dr McGowan is a physiotherapist by background. Her main research interests are health professions education, refugee health, leadership in healthcare, and leadership development. She was awarded her PhD in 2017 and completed her postdoctoral fellowship researching leadership and leadership development in healthcare at Trinity College Dublin. Dr McGowan leads the interprofessional education programme for students across disciplines in the Faculty of Health Sciences. Dr McGowan was a collaborator on Erasmus+ projects PREP (Physiotherapy and Refugee Education Project) and PREP-IP (Persons with Refugee Experiences Education Project Interprofessional). Dr McGowan is a collaborator on the Erasmus+ funded project, Learning and Working Together for Improved Healthcare Outcomes – Strengthening Interprofessional Education (WhoLeIPE). This project aims to contribute to the advancement of IPE and interprofessional collaborative practice as the foundation of comprehensive, coordinated, resilient and responsive health care.

Sarah Quinn

(author)
Assistant Professor in the Discipline of Occupational Therapy at Trinity College Dublin

Sarah Quinn, MPhil., BSc., is an Assistant Professor in the Discipline of Occupational Therapy, Trinity College Dublin. Her scholarship and research interests are primarily justice orientated with a particular focus on feminism, occupational justice, community participation, and social inclusion. Through her teaching she advances practices in social occupational therapy that includes the promotion of refugee health at micro to macro levels. Sarah leads an award-winning, multi-service collaboration that developed an innovative model to facilitate supported volunteering and promote inclusion of those experiencing social disadvantage. She was an active member of the Erasmus+ funded, inter-disciplinary project, PREP-IP (Persons with Refugee Experiences Education Project Interprofessional), which developed resources for health and social care professionals to work in the area of refugee and migrant health.

Rolf Vardal

(author)

Rolf Vårdal is a physiotherapist who has worked in the refugee field since 1998, having worked as a clinical therapist at the Center for Migration Health (CMH) in Bergen, Norway, but also as a councellor at the local center for resettled refugees, as well as at the regional trauma center, RVTS-West. Rolf has been involved in research projects in the refugee field. These are CHART (Changing Health and health care needs Along the Syrian Refugees’ Trajectories to Norway), PREP and PREP-IP, in collaboration with the local university and the university of applied sciences of Western Norway. He was also a part of a collaboration with ICAR Foundation in Romania through RVTS-West. He has over the years participated and presented at conferences both locally, nationally and internationally. He has also been a board member of The International Society for Health and Human Rights (ISHHR) since 2017.