During the event, Parliamentary State Secretary Annette Widmann-Mauz and Minister of State Aydan Özoğuz discussed with stakeholders in the healthcare sector and migrant organizations how healthcare and nursing care must adapt to a linguistically, culturally and religiously diverse society.
Ensure good health care
With numerous measures, the Federal Ministry of Health contributes to ensuring and further improving access to good health care for migrants.
In view of the increasing number of older migrants and those in need of care, information about care services and access to these services should be improved. A model project and an event with migrant associations is planned to improve the counseling of those in need of care with a migrant background and their relatives within the framework of care bases.
In May 2015, together with the Turkish Ministry of Health, a conference with experts from both countries on the medical and nursing care of people of Turkish origin in Germany will take place in Berlin. The health ministers of both countries, Hermann Gröhe and Mehmet Müezzinoglu, will take part.
The intercultural opening of hospitals is also a topic of the focus year on health. A symposium with the municipal hospital operator Vivantes in Berlin and the Minister of State Aydan Özoguz is intended to exchange experiences and generate suggestions for the intercultural opening of care facilities.
With the aim of making prevention offers even more migration-sensitive than before, the Prevention Act provides for continuous cooperation with migrant organizations within the framework of prevention forums.
In order to improve the data situation, the Robert Koch Institute is conducting a survey on the state of health of children and young people with a migration background. This enables targeted measures to be taken to improve health.
Health care for refugees is also to be improved. A proposal is currently being drawn up together with the responsible federal states to enable all federal states to introduce a health card for asylum seekers.
The Federal Center for Health Education already publishes information on health topics in many languages. A new health portal Migration and Health is now to bundle information material on medical care for refugees and asylum seekers as well as health-related information on migration and integration issues. The Federal Center’s initiatives in 2015 also include the development of advanced training and qualification measures for helpers and caregivers of asylum seekers.