Quality Standards for Diabetes Care Toolkit

Immigrants and refugees

As there does not appear to be an overarching guideline for care of immigrants and refugees with diabetes specific to New Zealand, all immigrants or refugees should receive care for their diabetes as per national standards.
Immigrants and refugees have different experiences of arriving in New Zealand. Immigrants choose to leave their homeland and resettle whereas refugees do not choose to leave their homeland, rather they flee in response to a crisis (Ministry of Health 2012). These differences in reasons for coming to New Zealand may give rise to different health needs. Additionally, many of these people (particularly refugees) will have had vastly different experiences of health care in their country of origin.
Although not specific to the care of diabetes in these groups, two documents are available that provide additional information.
The Ministry of Health (2012) has developed a handbook about refugee health care providing background to the countries of origin for many refugees in New Zealand, main areas of resettlement, considerations for a consultation with a refugee, common issues in physical health care, mental health issues, considerations for refugees with special health and disability needs, a contact list and additional information.
A Canadian document with recommendations for the health care of immigrants and refugees, Evidence based clinical guidelines for immigrants and refugees (2011), covers infectious diseases, chronic and non-communicable diseases, women’s health and knowledge translation.