Refugee and Migrant Health ― A Primary Care Perspective

With the early transfer of refugees to general practice, there is an urgent need to address key issues related to migration and health among family doctors. This practical book is the first to help general practitioners and other primary health care providers improve their provision of care not only to immigrants, but to other vulnerable groups and the whole society. The book meets the imperative need for primary health care professionals to develop skills and competencies when meeting patients with diverse backgrounds in order to ensure equity in health care in our current day societies.

Bernadette Kumar is Director of the Norwegian Centre for Minority Health Research (NAKMI), Oslo University Hospital. She is a graduate from India in medicine with a residency in Surgery (1988) with a doctorate in Epidemiology and Public Health from the University of Oslo, Norway (2006). In December 2010 she was appointed Director of NAKMI and in February 2013 she was appointed Associate Professor in Global Health at the Institute for Health and Society, University of Oslo. Bernadette has several years' international experience working for UNICEF, WHO, WFP, World Bank and NORAD in Southern Sudan, Somalia, North West Kenya, West Bank and Gaza, North Korea and China (1989-2000), Bhutan where she has held positions both in midlevel management, as a technical expert and consultant. She has held various positions at Health Directorate, advisor Norway-China Health Agreement (2002-2005), Senior Advisor attached to the Royal Norwegian Embassy in New Delhi - Norway India Partnership to reduce child mortality (2007-2009) and Senior Advisor/Project Coordination Reform - preventive Healthcare (2010). Bernadette’s research has focussed on migration and health. In 2000, she coordinated and led the first ever Health Survey among immigrants in Oslo (Oslo Immigrant Health Study) that led to the completion of her doctoral dissertation on 'Ethnic Differences in Obesity and Related Risk Factors for Cardiovascular Disease', at the University of Oslo in 2005. This was followed by a post doctoral research fellowship at the Institute for Psychiatry, University of Oslo, to study the relationship between chronic disease and mental health (2006 -2008). She is also the principal author of ’’The Oslo Immigrant Health Profile’ (2008),commissioned by the National Institute of Public Health, Norway. Bernadette is the co-editor and author of Text Book on Immigrant Health in Norway: Flerkulturelt folkehelsearbeid (Fagbokforlaget 2009)

Esperanza Diaz is a Specialist in Primary Care and Associate Professor in the Dept. of Global Public Health and Primary Care, University of Bergen, Norway. She is also Research leader at the Norwegian Centre for Minority Health Research (NAKMI), Oslo University Hospital. She is part-time General Practitioner at Kalfaret legesenter.