Anna Humphries-Trends

Refugee Health/Trends in Salt Lake County

          Ashley Poore is a BYU graduate in Public Health and is also studying to get her MPH at Loma Linda University.  She is working at the Salt Lake City IRC. She is mainly teaching classes about life skills and helping the refugees adjust to life in Salt Lake City. As she explained their situation and the work that she does, I was fascinated by the bravery it must take to even be a refugee! It was extremely interesting to hear about what it must be like and what it takes to assimilate into our culture. Talking to Ashley really opened my eyes to the many aspects of Public Health. I really enjoyed this assignment because it really helped me understand the practical aspect of this major.           Diabetes and obesity are a huge issue pertaining mostly to health education. Refugees need to know how to balance their life in such a new and exotic place. They are not educated on how to adapt to a new lifestyle in such a new culture and environment. The biggest health risk pertaining to obesity would be the diagnosis of type 2 diabetes. Their diets have not been accustomed to so much sugar and fat. They come to this country as slender individuals but because they are not educated about how to assimilate, they become obese and ill. They were not accustomed to exercising in their home countries, and when they get here, that does not play well into their overall wellbeing.   

      Even though these refugees are screened in their previous refugee camps, there are some things that slip through the cracks. Things they are good about screening are respiratory infections, but obviously there are many instances of this diagnosis. The reason for so many respiratory infections is from the overcrowding of previous refugee camps. Overcrowding has many negative effects, but respiratory infections are the most prominent. Things that went untreated for so long such as someone who needed glasses when they were younger but did not get them. Things that go untreated for so long that normally wouldn’t be an issue for someone living in our culture because they could either get the proper preventative care or be treated for such diagnosis’ after symptoms have persisted. Cataracts are common and preexisting conditions are unfortunate because these people didn’t have access to the preventative treatment or to proper treatment after diagnosis.

        Assimilating into the community can prove to be a huge challenge; even little things like cooking in an apartment and using public transit are foreign tasks to refugees. Risks that come with cooking are starting a fire. That isn’t something we would even consider as a risk, but these little things are a big deal to people coming from third world countries such as Sudan, Burma, Nepal, Bhutan, and Syrians, and even Iraqi’s who refused to Syria and ended up here. Because they don’t know how to drive or do the things that we consider simple, they are a potential harm to themselves and others.

The Salt Lake City IRC is one of the refugee centers that offers a 12 month case length which means they can get help for a year. Most places in the US only offer a 6-8 month case length. At one time, Salt Lake City was the only 12 month case length.