Maternity and child health clinic employees working with immigrant families need support and advice on how to encounter their clients
Maternity and child health clinic employees who work with immigrant families have expressed a need for additional resources and more support for their work. They hope for work guidance and the opportunity to consult other professionals, but there is also a need for closer cooperation with colleagues, for example throughdifferent networks.
The data was published in a survey conducted by the PALOMA Center of Expertise in Refugee Mental Health Work coordinated by the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL), which examined experiences of professionals at maternity and child health clinics when working with immigrant families.
Working with immigrant families with children and immigrant parents expecting a child is common in maternity and child health clinic services, and many maternity and child health clinic employees encounter immigrants in their work daily or weekly. Although working with immigrant families was common among professionals who responded to the survey, the majority (63%) felt that they needed more information and training to support their work.
"The need for information was related to integration, encounters with clients, experiences of violence, linguistic and cultural factors, and challenges in family life. Bringing up the topic of FGM was also highlighted,” says Reija Klemetti, Research Manager at the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare.
Families need multilingual information about the service system
The support that families using child health clinic services often need,often relate to a lack of social networks in Finland, the nutrition and linguistic development of their children,and differences in educational methods. The challenges encountered by maternity clinic clients were mostly related to nutrition and lifestyle during pregnancy as well as perceptions related to pregnancy.
According to professionals, many immigrant clients also felt that the Finnish service system was very foreign to them, which causes uncertainty and misunderstandings at the clinics. According to the professionals, there is a need for multilingual information on maternity and child health clinic services. In addition, clients wanted services to be centralised in the same place.
"Family centres that coordinate services for families with children are one way to streamline services. Family centres also offer a good opportunity to increase multiprofessional cooperation between professionals," Klemetti says.
In their responses professionals mentioned needs and development proposals, but also highlighted a number of proven methods for practical work, which contributed to successful work with and support for immigrant parents and families. These included an openminded approach and direct questions, cultural sensitivity, public health nurses working in pairs, the completion of assessments and forms through discussion, and working with professional interpreters.
The PALOMA Centre of Excellence has received funding for its activities from the European Union’s Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF).
Further information
Kankaanpää S-L, Kaukonen S, Klemetti R, Vesterinen E (2022). Experiences of maternity and child health clinic employees working with immigrant clients. Research in brief 56/2022. The Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL), Helsinki.
Reija Klemetti
Research Manager
THL
Tel. +358 29 524 7265
[email protected]
