Guiding Principles for Writing About Immigrants and Immigrant Health.

This perspective identifies harmful phrasing and frames in current clinician and researcher work relating to immigrant health and provides equity-centered alternatives. Recommendations are organized within two broad categories, one focused on shifting terminology toward more humanizing language and the second focused on changing frames around immigration discourse. With regards to shifting terminology, this includes: 1) avoiding language that conflates immigrants with criminality (i.

Immigration-related Legal Collaboration in Primary Care: Evaluating Impact on Knowledge and Well-being.

Objectives: To evaluate the impact of embedding an immigration attorney in a primary care clinic to address immigration-related legal needs.

Methods: We conducted a mixed-methods study of 42 legal clinic participants from May 2019-February 2020. Measures included psychological distress, understanding of legal options, and self-rated general health collected prior to, following, and 60-90 days after consultation.

COVID-19 Infection and Contact Tracing Among Refugees in the United States, 2020-2021.

Refugees in the United States are believed to be at high risk of COVID-19. A cross-sectional study design was utilized to collect anonymous, online surveys from refugee communities in the United States during December 2020 to January 2021. We invited bilingual community leaders to share the survey link with other refugees aged ≥18 years.

Impact of United States 2017 Immigration Policy changes on missed appointments at two Massachusetts Safety-Net Hospitals.

Introduction: Studies have shown mixed findings regarding the impact of immigration policy changes on immigrants' utilization of primary care.

Methods: We used a difference-in-differences analysis to compare changes in missed primary care appointments over time across two groups: patients who received care in Spanish, Portuguese, or Haitian Creole, and non-Hispanic, white patients who received care in English.

Results: After adjustment for age, sex, race, insurance, hospital system, and presence of chronic conditions, immigration policy changes were associated with an absolute increase in the missed appointment prevalence of 0.

Consideration of racism experiences in the implementation of trauma-focused therapy in primary care.

Objective: To understand providers' perceptions of how a patient's experience of racism may impact the successful implementation of a brief posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) treatment in the safety net integrated primary care setting. To conduct a developmental formative evaluation prior to a hybrid type I effectiveness-implementation trial.

Data Sources And Study Setting: From October 2020 to January 2021, in-depth qualitative interviews were conducted with integrated primary care stakeholders (N = 27) at the largest safety net hospital in New England, where 82% of patients identify as racial or ethnic minorities.

Embedding Chaplaincy Services in Primary Care for Immigrants, Refugees and Asylum Seekers: A Boston Pilot Intervention.

This Boston-based pilot research was an exploratory study that integrated outpatient chaplaincy into a refugee and immigrant health primary care clinic. Patients were screened for spiritual distress and offered a meeting with chaplaincy interns. Forty-eight patients were seen in clinic, 28 were screened, and 9 met with a chaplain.

Acceptance of COVID-19 Vaccine Among Refugees in the United States.

Objective: Little is known about COVID-19 vaccination intentions among refugee communities in the United States. The objective of this study was to measure COVID-19 vaccination intentions among a sample of refugees in the United States and the reasons for their vaccine acceptance or hesitancy.

Methods: From December 2020 through January 2021, we emailed or text messaged anonymous online surveys to 12 bilingual leaders in the Afghan, Bhutanese, Somali, South Sudanese, and Burmese refugee communities in the United States.

Traumatic brain injury and forensic evaluations: Three case studies of U.S. asylum-seekers.

Traumatic brain injuries are common among refugees and asylum-seekers and can result from a range of etiologies, including intimate partner violence, gang violence, war-related trauma, and torture. Regardless of the cause, these injuries often result in a host of neuropsychiatric and other symptoms that may complicate individuals' subsequent health outcomes. For asylum-seekers, documenting prior head trauma is essential to the legal process, since traumatic brain injuries and their subsequent effects on memory and cognition may affect the ability to provide thorough testimony.