Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health (WDGPH) is prepared for refugees coming to the area, official say.
At the Jan. 6 board of health meeting, medical officer of health Dr. Nicola Mercer said WDGPH has put together an internal committee that meets regularly to plan and prepare for refugee arrivals.
Though WDGPH has not been asked to provide services for the refugees that have arrived in Guelph and Dufferin (at the meeting Mercer was not aware of any refugees in Wellington County) Mercer said the health unit is currently compiling a list of private sponsors in its service area.
“We will be, in the very near future, reaching out to the sponsors to say ‘here are the programs and services that public health offers and you can contact us for them,’” Mercer told the board.
“We can’t force them to contact us, we just need to make them aware of what we can offer so that if they have needs they can call us.”
She said she is still unsure of the best way to locate and contact government-assisted refugees who may settle in the area.
One area of concern for board member Margaret Abbink is how the health unit is going to ensure it’s aware of any incoming refugees that have communicable diseases and how it is going to keep immunization records.
Board member Keith Perron explained all of the refugees are screened before they get on the plane to Canada.
“The Canadian military does the initial screen and testing and then anything like that is then forwarded to public health and primary care in the community that they’ll be locating in,” Perron said.
Mercer said immunizations are a topic of discussion for primary care providers and the incoming refugees, not necessarily public health.
“We can’t assume that there’s a standard, so everyone will have to make a statement and we are used to alternate immunization schedules in public health and we are prepared to help primary care providers,” Mercer said.
However, she noted she doesn’t think immunization support is going to be the most in demand public health service.
“Some of the areas that we will (be) … most interested … in (are) prenatal and pregnancy, ensuring that they have access to prenatal care, ensuring that they’re accessing all the supports … so parenting classes, breast feeding supports, all of those supports ensuring that children get into schools, screening to make sure children are appropriately developmentally ready for school, ensuring that when kids land we get them connected,” Mercer said.
Board member June Hofland questioned how public health was preparing to address the language barrier with refugees.
Mercer said the Ministry of Health and Long-term Care has provided packages in a variety of languages that gives newcomers information about health care in Canada.
“They provided a package on ‘welcome to Canada and this is sort of some of the things you should know,’” she said. “So it talks about how you access primary care services, how you get OHIP cards, what does public health do.”
Mercer also said there is one person with WDGPH who speaks Arabic and can potentially assist. She also said the health unit subscribes to LanguageLine Services, which allows the client to talk to an interpreter on the phone who then translates for the practitioner.
“It’s kind of like having an interpreter, it’s just not in the room with you,” she said.
