Supporting refugees and asylum seekers

Meet community nurse specialist, Layla Fraser:

"I’ve worked as a community nurse specialist in refugee and asylum services in the health inclusion team for almost a year. Our team provides an outreach healthcare service into initial accommodation centres (IAC) where asylum seekers and refugees are housed by the Home Office. I visit the IACs two to three times a week offering health assessments, triage slots and vaccines, and on my other days I run phone clinics, make appropriate referrals for the patients and attend meetings for the service.?

We aim to offer health assessments for all residents of the IACs where physical, mental, sexual, dental and eye health are discussed with the patients. I will also offer a screening blood test where we can test for deficiencies and illnesses which may be otherwise undetected.

As an example, latent TB is asymptomatic and it is estimated that around 25% of the global population have latent TB/TB so by offering the specialist screening for this for asylum seekers, we can identify any need for treatment prior to an active infection.

Sometimes the patient may come from a country where their health system is very established and sometimes someone will come having never accessed healthcare before so being able to have this initial assessment regarding their health and linking them in with appropriate services is very important.

As can be predicted, mental health is a large part of the conversation with asylum seekers and refugees and as a service we are able to link patients in with mental health support services when this is required.?

In the past eight years I have visited Calais around 20-30 times to volunteer in supporting refugee communities there.

I initially went in 2015 after the Syrian refugee crisis where we were able to support in setting up an electrical generator for local charities providing hot food or medical aid. It also offered a place where refugees were able to charge their phones, have hot drinks and play games. From here, I went on to volunteer with charities providing hot food and clothes/donations and then onto providing first aid in recent years.?

During my nursing training dissertation, I focused on research around health inclusion and reaching marginalised groups in the UK. From here, I wanted to use my nursing in an area that bridged the gap for asylum seekers in accessing health care services so I am very grateful to have been able to move into this role."

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