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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Recorded presentation

Margaret S.(Peggy Sue) Wright, MSN, CS, FRPHI, School of Public Health, University of California Berkeley, 140 Warren Hall #7360, Berkeley, CA 94720-7360, 510-548-3514, margaret.wright@csueastbay.com

Purpose: Multiple groups are calling for participation of refugees in humanitarian programs. These calls have not been explicit in their guidance for programs. They also have not explicitly discussed the expected outcomes from refugee participation. This has lead to program evaluations and implementation that are mixed at best, and at worst show no evidence that participation should be a desired programming principle. In an era of evidence-based practice and funding, this lack of clear rationale and guidance needs rectifying. Methods: This is an assessment of how programs and organizations are involving refugees in camp public health program decision-making, and what are the expected outcomes of refugee participation. As several models are found to be operating, a framework is developed to relate them. This research was done as a nested case study, using archival materials to reconstruct the program logic models. Interviews were done with persons involved in refugee public health programming to confirm the logic models developed and to assess the potential usefulness of the framework. Findings: Refugee participation programs in camp public health are employing multiple definitions of refugee participation with varied expectations of outcomes. They are rarely explicit, and definitions and outcomes often not directly connected. Seven main program logics are found. The main logics included two large clusters – utilitarian and human rights based. The utilitarian cluster emphasized the need to get the program delivered effectively and efficiently. The human rights cluster focused on the need to provide public health services within a moral frame that included human rights and communal rights to make decisions. Conclusions: Organizations are implementing refugee participation in various ways, with significantly different expectations of outcomes. Within this range is a cluster of approaches that focus on human rights. The developed framework allows for clarifying program development, implementation and evaluation of refugee participation programs should yield richer and more relevant results that will allow for a better evidence base for refugee participation and for better program development.

Dissertation Chair – Ralph Catalano, PhD University of California Berkeley, School of Public Health Expect to earn DrPH May 2006.

Learning Objectives:

• Participants will be able to list at least three ways that public health programs involve refugees in program decision-making.
• Participants will be able to discuss at least three logic models for programs that involve refugees in program decision-making.
• Participants will be able to discuss how these logic models fit in an overall framework for programs that have participatory decision-making in refugee camp public health programs.

Keywords: Community-Based Public Health, Refugees

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Not Answered

Recorded presentation