Health Assessment
A Refugee Health Assessment can be provided within 12 months of arrival.
As with all health assessments, consent is required before a health assessment is performed. The item numbers are the same as for all health assessments (703-707).
The health assessment should include:
- A detailed history
- Examination
- Problem list and
- Management plan.
A copy of the health assessment should be provided to the patient.
The Commonwealth Department of Health provides more information about the MBS Refugee Health Assessments for refugees and other humanitarian entrants into Australia.
- Fact sheet – Medicare items 701,703, 705 and 707
- Questions and Answers
- Medicare Health Assessments
Translated Resources for Patients
Informed Consent
Metro South Health have developed videos in multiple languages about informed consent so that patients clearly understand the health problem and agree to what the health worker is going to do. View the videos here.
Health Alerts
Some people who arrive as refugees, arrive with a health undertaking and must seek further care for their health issue soon after arrival as a condition of their visa (e.g. for TB and HIV positive patients). The settlement agency usually arranges the linkage with the health service required.
Other people arrive with a health alert. These patients were identified as having a health issue requiring medical care soon after arrival in Australia and the settlement agency is asked to facilitate this. More information is available from the Department of Home Affairs Red and General Health Alert Fact Sheets.
Health Assessment of Syrians
- IOM Health Assessment Findings – Syria 2015
- IOM Prevalence Data – Syria 2015
- Refugees from Syria (Cultural Orientation Resource Centre Project, 2014)
- Syrian health profile (WHO)
- Culture, Context and the Mental Health and Psychosocial Wellbeing of Syrians (UNHCR, 2015)
- The Syria crisis, displacement and protection (Forced Migration Review, 2014)
- FACT SHEET – Australia’s response to the Syrian and Iraqi humanitarian crisis
- Population Profile: Syrian Refugees (Citizenship and Immigration Canada)
Template for Refugee Health Assessments
(Developed by General Practice, Victoria)
Refugee Health Assessment Template (2012)
PDF and rtf versions suit Medical Director and other Medical Software.
Instructions – How to download the Refugee Health Assessment Template and upload to Medical Director
The templates
- Assist the documentation of a refugee health assessment
- Contain prompts to cover the information that needs to be collected
- Contain tips on how to conduct a Refugee Health Assessment.
Resources to support Health Assessments
- Recommended Pathology Investigations for refugee new arrivals (including children).
- Managing the Refugee Patient– includes information about how to perform a Refugee Health Assessment (Dr. Kay, 2015)
- ASID (Australasian Society for Infectious Diseases) Refugee Health Guidelines (2016)
- Hearing Services Program – Australian Government Department of Health
- Resources about Cultural Sensitivity
- Further support is available from Refugee Health Connect (Brisbane South and North).
Videos – Refugee Health Assessment
Health Practitioners discussing how to conduct a Refugee Health Assessment were recorded at a Refugee Health Education in 2017. Some are available below and more videos of this event are available here.