Initial Health Assessment From the Asylum Seekers’ Perspective: a Qualitative Study in Finland
Ismail, Marian Abdisalam (2020)
2020
Master's Degree Programme in Public and Global Health
Yhteiskuntatieteiden tiedekunta - Faculty of Social Sciences
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Hyväksymispäivämäärä
2020-05-20
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202004294496
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202004294496
Tiivistelmä
All asylum seekers are offered initial health services upon arrival in Finland, the health assessment which is offered to them is the first contact with the Finnish health care system. Yet despite the importance of this initial contact, both for regulating health care policies and for treating asylum seekers, little research has investigated the asylum seekers' perspective of their first assessment in Finland or the scope to which they think it contributes to meeting their health needs.
This qualitative study aims to understand asylum seekers’ perspective towards the initial health assessment and the information of this study will be used for the development of initial health assessment protocol for asylum seekers in Finland.
Data of this study were collected using purposive sampling to ensure that only respondents who were newly arrived adult asylum seekers and who have taken part in the initial health assessment conducted in the two largest reception centres in Finland were included in this research. These thirteen participants are representatives of major regions of origin that sought asylum in Finland 2018. Different steps of thematic analysis were presented involving familiarization with the data; generating initial codes; identifying themes; reviewing themes and labelling themes.
The findings of this study suggest that asylum seekers perceived the practical implementation of initial health assessment (IHA) primarily as prevention and treatment of infectious diseases. Most of the participants did not understand the purpose of initial health assessment and some did not get a clear picture of all its contents. In addition, most of the participants were unaware of the possibility to decline from the IHA as they believed to be mandatory.
This qualitative study aims to understand asylum seekers’ perspective towards the initial health assessment and the information of this study will be used for the development of initial health assessment protocol for asylum seekers in Finland.
Data of this study were collected using purposive sampling to ensure that only respondents who were newly arrived adult asylum seekers and who have taken part in the initial health assessment conducted in the two largest reception centres in Finland were included in this research. These thirteen participants are representatives of major regions of origin that sought asylum in Finland 2018. Different steps of thematic analysis were presented involving familiarization with the data; generating initial codes; identifying themes; reviewing themes and labelling themes.
The findings of this study suggest that asylum seekers perceived the practical implementation of initial health assessment (IHA) primarily as prevention and treatment of infectious diseases. Most of the participants did not understand the purpose of initial health assessment and some did not get a clear picture of all its contents. In addition, most of the participants were unaware of the possibility to decline from the IHA as they believed to be mandatory.