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Immigrant and Refugee Adolescent Care: Challenges and Opportunities

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Promoting Health Equity Among Racially and Ethnically Diverse Adolescents

Abstract

There are increasing numbers of adolescents from immigrant backgrounds in the United States. Providers caring for immigrant youth and their families need to be well versed in strategies to reach, build trust, and promote access to care for this population. Providers also need to be able to adopt family-centered approaches to engage, encourage, and empower immigrant adolescents and their family members and to promote shared decision-making between them. The chapter will describe strategies and approaches to best engage immigrant adolescents and their families in clinical care. A clinical vignette illustrates how healthcare providers caring for immigrant adolescents can use a family-centered approach. Additionally, the chapter highlights unique considerations in working with immigrant youth and their families, including the importance of understanding each patient’s migration history, common legal and advocacy concerns, and specific clinical challenges in caring for this community.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Minnesota, Department of Family Medicine and Community Health, Community-University Health Care Center (CUHCC), Minneapolis, MN, USA

    Roli Dwivedi

  2. Community-University Health Care Center/University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA

    Mary O’Donnell

  3. University of Minnesota, Department of Family Medicine and Community Health, Community University Health Care Center, Minneapolis, MN, USA

    Karen Jankowski

Authors
  1. Roli Dwivedi
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  2. Mary O’Donnell
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  3. Karen Jankowski
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Roli Dwivedi .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Program Director, Family Medicine Residency, Vice-Chair, Department of Family Medicine, Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Lisa Barkley

  2. Medical Director, Faculty, Department of Family and Community Medicine, Hennepin Healthcare, Minneapolis, MN, USA

    Maria Veronica Svetaz

  3. Chief, Section of Adolescent Medicine, Department of General Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Phoenix Children’s Hospital, Phoenix, AZ, USA

    Veenod L. Chulani

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Dwivedi, R., O’Donnell, M., Jankowski, K. (2019). Immigrant and Refugee Adolescent Care: Challenges and Opportunities. In: Barkley, L., Svetaz, M., Chulani, V. (eds) Promoting Health Equity Among Racially and Ethnically Diverse Adolescents. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97205-3_14

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97205-3_14

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-97204-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-97205-3

  • eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)

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