Amita Tuteja

Project Description

Currently more than 40,000 Burma born refugees live in Australia. Their experiences of prolonged civil war and decades of human rights violations make them particularly vulnerable to poor health outcomes. Pressing settlement issues take precedence over health care needs and sexual and reproductive health (SRH) is definitely forgotten on arrival. The dilemmas are compounded by language discordance between health care providers and patient, presence of a third person, such as the interpreter and the patient’s unfamiliarity with the Western health systems. Disclosures of traumatic refugee journeys, sexual assault, and emotional impacts of loss of family make SRH conversations particularly demanding. In this research, Amita explores the complexities involved in SRH consultations with refugees from Burma. Considerations, examples, and potential solutions are presented in the hope of advancing communication related ethics, policies, and practice in SRH initiatives for refugees from Burma.

Supervisors

Associate Professor Meredith Temple-Smith, Department of General Practice
Professor Lena Sanci, Department of General Practice
Dr Lester Mascarenhas, Department of General Practice