Humildade cultural: conceito estratégico para abordar a saúde dos refugiados no Brasil
Carmen Santana
2018
Cadernos de Saúde Pública
In order to contribute to the analyses of the Thematic Section: Refugee Populations and Health 1,2,3 , we will briefly discuss refugees in Brazil and present the concept of cultural humility as strategic for training health professionals, challenging the model of cultural competence presented in the article Multiculturality Skills, Health Care and Communication Disorders 1 . Brazil is viewed as a safe country for refugees. It has the largest refugee population in South America, with individuals
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... hailing from 80 different countries. There are 10,145 people recognized as refugees in Brazil and 86,007 whose request for refugee status is currently under evaluation. They are concentrated in large urban centers. Women are 34% of this population. Most come from Syria (39%), the Democratic Republic of Congo (13%), Colombia (4%), Palestine (4%), Pakistan (3%), Mali (2%), Irak (1%), Angola (1%), Republic of Guinea (1%), Afghanistan (1%), Cameroon (1%) and others (3%) 4 . Although they do not share the health risks associated with the "non-entry" regime described by Castiglione 2 , refugees in Brazil face obstacles to integration: cultural, ethnic and economic differences, language difficulties, loss of family and social relations, restrictions to the recognition of academic degrees, violence related to the circumstances that forced them to move. Additionally, they suffer from social problems that affect Brazilians: difficulties finding employment, accessing higher education, housing and health 5 . The Brazilian Unified National Health System (SUS, in Portuguese) provides health care for immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers. Action plans should take into account the influence of culture on symptom expression, disease experiences, and on the evolution and progression of clinical cases. Applying the same protocols, diagnoses and treatments to a culturally different population means not recognizing the cultural validity of health actions. Diagnoses require a high level of cultural understanding. Health professionals communicate within the health/disease model they have learned. Refugees do not always share this model. The bigger the cultural difference between health professionals and service users, the bigger the chances of communication errors, which make diagnostic evaluations even harder 5 . Facing refugees' cultural diversity, in practice, health providers complain about lacking information and preparation for providing care. The model of cultural competence pressuposes that health professionals learn a set of attitudes and communication skills that will allow them to work effectively within patients' cultural context. Cultural humility is defined as the process of being aware of how culture can affect health-related CARTA LETTER Cultural humility: a strategic concept for addressing refugee health in Brazil Humildade cultural: conceito estratégico para abordar a saúde dos refugiados no Brasil Humildad cultural: concepto estratégico para abordar la salud de los refugiados en Brasil
doi:10.1590/0102-311x00098818
fatcat:2giedq425beydj2tc6ygrnechq