Listening to What Matters

Project status: Complete

Research area: Population Health > Intergenerational Health

This study aims to understand the experiences of refugee background parents and the health and social care professionals caring for them in pregnancy and early parenthood during the COVID-19 pandemic in Victoria.

listen to what matters logo The pandemic has presented unprecedented challenges for the entire Victorian community. Through the application of a health equity lens, it is apparent that some members of our community may experience greater challenges than others, including refugee background parents and health and social care professionals working with these families on the front lines of the pandemic response.

The knowledge generated by this phenomenological study will help to ensure our short-and-long-term responses to the pandemic are informed by the needs of refugee background parents and the professionals caring for them.

Listening to What Matters is a collaboration between the Murdoch Children's Refugee and Migrant Research Program and the Victorian Foundation for the Survivors of Torture (Foundation House), and is funded by the North West Melbourne Primary Health Network (NWMPHN).

The Refugee and Migrant Research Program includes a team of bicultural Project Officers working across the following language and cultural groups:

Afghan (speaking Dari)
Assyrian-Chaldean (from Iraq and Syria)
Karen (from Burma)
Syrian and Iraqi (speaking Arabic)
Sudanese and South Sudanese

Listening to What Matters

Information for participants

Who can take part?

We will recruit from the Primary Health Network catchment area across the northwest region of Melbourne. As this study is funded by a Primary Health Network (PHN).

Parents

We are recruiting refugee background parents from the above cultural and language groups living in the PHN catchment area who, since the beginning of the pandemic, have received pregnancy and/or early child healthcare.

Health and social care professionals

We are recruiting health and social care professionals to provide care to families in the perinatal period and working within the PHN catchment area. This includes midwives, GPs, maternal and child health nurses, interpreters, social workers, and obstetricians, for example.