About stigma as a barrier to health care access for migrants and refugees with SUD

Authors

1.Mrs. Carolina Gorlero (⚑ Argentina) 1

1. ISSUP Argentina

Abstract

Intersectionality as a theoretical perspective from which Human Rights-based practices are framed, has allowed us to visualize that migrants and refugees face great barriers to access to health systems in host communities all over the world. The stigma suffered by migrants and refugees, who are seen in the social imaginary as “right´s hoarders”, is doubled when they also have mental illnesses and substance use disorders. Reviewing social representations, prejudices and stigma surrounding migration and substance use disorders is a necessary strategy to reduce the gaps in health care and to promote the expansion of rights, especially when considering health as a universal human right.

Throughout the year, I have given multiple workshops in different provinces in my country addressed to mental health professionals, so as to work on their social representations about these topics and disarticulate their myths, prejudices and, thus, promote a comprehensive treatment for migrants with SUD.

Presenting statistics and updated data, and working raising awareness enables 1. to make visible that mental health professionals and institutions are not exempt from prejudice; 2. to improve intercultural communication inside working teams as a key tool to supports cultural diversity, which is the common heritage of humanity and 3. to decrease the stigma and psychological suffering of migrants and refugees with SUD.