Ezidi voices: The communication of COVID-19 information amongst a refugee community in rural Australia- a qualitative study
Healey, Sunita Joann Rebecca, Ghafournia, Nafiseh, Massey, Peter D., Andrich, Karinne, Harrison, Joy, Taylor, Kathryn, and Bolsewicz, Katarzyna (2022) Ezidi voices: The communication of COVID-19 information amongst a refugee community in rural Australia- a qualitative study. International Journal for Equity in Health, 21 (1). 10.
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Abstract
Background: There is growing evidence that government health information related to COVID-19 has failed to adequately reach culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) populations in Australia. Refugees are a unique sub-set of the CALD communities and are subject to numerous barriers preventing adequate health care, both pre- and post-migration. The barriers are accentuated during emergencies, such as a pandemic, as a result of an intersection of various social and economic inequalities. The recently resettled Ezidi refugee community in a regional area of Australia is an example of a community sitting at the intersection of various inequities and thus at greater risk from COVID-19. The purpose of this study is to describe the experiences of the Ezidi in a regional area with COVID-19 information and how this has been communicated to and shared within this group; what barriers the community may experience in accessing COVID-19 information; and how the government-led COVID-19 information communication could be improved.
Methods: This qualitative study was designed to explore the perceptions and views of the Ezidi and service providers regarding COVID-19 messaging. Multicultural and Refugee Health staff facilitated interviews with four local service providers and ten Ezidi community members, including seven influential leaders. Thematic analysis was employed across individual, pair and group data analysis. Similar categories were grouped into themes.
Results: The main findings of the study are: the refugee experience influences the communication of COVID-19 messages; cultural, social and gender norms influence responses to COVID-19; trusted individuals and service providers are key in communities’ uptake of COVID-19 messages; currently available governmental COVID-19 information resources and sharing strategies were found unhelpful and inappropriate; COVID-19 communiqués and message delivery for this regional minority refugee community can be improved.
Conclusion: The recently resettled Ezidi community, and likely other similar communities, would benefit from tailored engagement by government organisations, as well as settlement services to improve the communication of COVID-19 health information and reduce related inequities.
| Item ID: | 74459 |
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| Item Type: | Article (Research - C1) |
| ISSN: | 1475-9276 |
| Keywords: | COVID-19 messages, Ezidi communit, Refugees, Regional Australia |
| Copyright Information: | © The Author(s) 2022. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data. |
| Date Deposited: | 25 Oct 2022 01:21 |
| FoR Codes: | 42 HEALTH SCIENCES > 4206 Public health > 420602 Health equity @ 100% |
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