The Yale Pediatric Refugee Clinic

The Yale Pediatric Refugee Clinic was established in 2007 as a partnership between New Haven’s refugee resettlement agency Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services (IRIS) and the Yale Primary Care Clinic, YPCC. Together with the adult refugee clinic, these clinics serve families resettling in the greater New Haven area. Approximately 250 refugees arrive in the Greater New Haven area each year and about 50% are under the age of 18 yrs. Over the past several years, the pediatric clinic has annually performed 85-155 initial health assessments on recently resettled children, most of whom continue their longitudinal care at the YPCC. The majority of these children and their families come from war-torn countries including Afghanistan, The Democratic Republic of the Congo, Iraq, Sudan and Syria.

Refugees face many challenges navigating the U.S. healthcare system due to the complexity of the system, differences in access compared to their home countries, and language barriers. Our goal is to provide high quality health care to refugees and support their transition into a new health care system. The pediatric refugee clinic team is composed of pediatric medical providers, pediatric nurses, interpreters, a consulting pediatric psychiatrist and neuropsychologist. We work closely with the healthcare coordinators at IRIS, and we partner with the YPCC social worker, care coordinator and medical-legal partnership. The YPCC becomes the medical home for a majority of the children seen for their initial Refugee Health Assessment.

To teach trainees to provide pediatric care for a diverse population of children from diverse cultural and linguistic groups. Resdients will learn to approach each family with cultural humility and empathy.

The Yale Pediatric Refugee Clinic is part of the Yale Pediatric Primary Care Center (YPCC) at Yale New Haven Hospital (YNHH). All residents will have the opportunity to care for our children who have been seen by the refugee clinic. Residents with a deeper interest in refugee healthcare can apply to be part of the refugee team. As a team member, they will learn how to perform the initial Refugee Health Assessment and to give longitudinal care for recently resettled children. They will gain an understanding of the medical and psychosocial needs of refugee children and learn how to work with our community partners and schools to support resettlement. In addition, residents will have opportunity to support our refugee families in the community, to learn more about global health through the Pediatric Global Health Track and develop their own projects and research.

Refugee Health Assessment (RHA): Residents will perform the initial RHA, learn how to review the overseas health assessment, and understand age-appropriate screening for infectious conditions, chronic conditions, traditional practices, developmental delay, and behavioral and mental health. They will gain expertise using the catch-up immunization schedule and will gain an understanding of how to educate families on the American Healthcare system.

Follow-up refugee assessment/longitudinal care: Residents will gain expertise in following acute and chronic medical conditions, catch-up immunization schedules, and evaluating adjustment and integration.

Didactics: Didactics focus on refugee healthcare and resettlement, performing the RHA, medical interpretation, mental and behavioral health for refugee children, cultural humility, and global health.

Community Advocacy: Residents will have the opportunity to work with community organizations such as our local refugee resettlement agency Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services (IRIS) to gain a deeper understanding the challenges of adjustment and resettlement, healthcare navigation and educational barriers faced by our refugee families. One of our most successful resident run programs is Y-HEALAR: The Yale Health Education and Literacy for Asylees and Refugees program is a collaboration between Yale healthcare providers and trainees and local organizations that strives to improve health education among New Haven refugee and asylee populations.

Yale Patient Navigator Program: Residents will mentor students who volunteer in the Yale Patient Navigator Program. This program pairs students from the allied healthcare fields with refugee families who have high medical needs or are struggling with navigating the health system.

Scholarship: Residents have the opportunity to develop their own research or QI project.

Conferences: Residents will have the opportunity to attend and to present their research at the Annual Yale Refugee Health Conference and the Annual North American Refugee Health Conference, run by the Society of Refugee Health Providers.