About the Project
The Physiotherapy and Refugees Education Project (PREP) addresses the mismatch between the competence of physiotherapists and the complex rehabilitation needs of a growing population of refugees and migrants in Europe.
Over 1 million refugees and migrants have crossed the borders to Europe in recent years. This migration represents a major challenge for health care systems that struggle to provide healthcare services, particularly for non-communicable diseases and disability. Refugees and migrants have complex health needs that are a result of a cumulative trauma experienced in their home countries, during their dangerous journey, or in the period of adjustment in their new country. This diverse and non-homogenous group also comes with resources in terms of resilience that we need to learn from and use in the healing process. However, they also face barriers accessing healthcare services because of language and cultural differences, differences in socio-economic status, and a lack of familiarity with local environment and healthcare system. There is a gap in competence of health care professionals, including physiotherapists to meet their complex needs, many of which can be addressed by physiotherapy. There is a clear lack of definition regarding physiotherapists competencies needed to serve refugees and migrants, and a lack of common strategies to address challenges of migration which has negative implications for health.
The project is divided into four parts (intellectual outputs):
1) European consensus
2) Curriculum
3) Production of e-course
4) Pilot and revision of the course
Project group and collaborators
This project is a collaboration between educational institutions, organisations and other projects.
Project leader: Maria Nordheim Alme, HVL
Full partners:
Western Norway University of Applied Sciences (HVL) : Maria Nordheim Alme, Djenana Jalovcic, Kjersti Wilhelmsen, Mike Landry
Bergen municipality, Center for migration health: Egil Kaberuka-Nielsen, Line Giust, Rolf Vaardal
Karolinska Institutet : Anna Pettersson, Carina Boström.
HAN University of Applied Sciences : Joost van Wijchen, Lieke Dekkers, Elvira Nouvens
Physiopedia : Rachael Lowe, Nomi O’Reilly, Lucy Aird
Trinity College : Emer McGowan
Associate partners and collaborators:
University of Antwerp
Environmental Physiotherapy Association (EPA)
Sunnås Rehabilitation Hospital, Oslo
Tverrkulturelt kompetansesenter, Stockholm
OTEurope
The Center for Victims of Torture (CVT)
Duke University
T.C.Nurse
InterAct
QuaranTrain
Swedish Red Cross
Humanity and Inclusion (HI)
International Committee of Red Cross (Lebanon)
Independent Doctors Association (IDA)
William Hale (leader of the PREP network)
And many, many more
Project Results
The PREP project have a number of tangible and non-tangible results. We hope we have managed to raise awareness and curiousity – although it is not so easy to measure and place on a plate.
These are our more tangible results. We hope you find some of this useful, and if you do – please spread!!
Scoping review, McGowan et al 2020:
Consensus report on competencies for physiotherapists working with refugees
Article about trauma-informed care, Kvale and Kolås 2020 (in Norwegian)
Article on collaboration to build competence in rehabilitation of torture survivors, Alme et al, 2021
Curriculum for the PREP course
Editorial paper, Landry et al, 2020
PREP E-book (based on the course)
Link to PREP course on canvas commons (might not open if your institution does not use canvas)
https://lor.instructure.com/resources/a89b8cda6dad4b20b5d24ef908df2ad0?shared
Participate in our PREP course 2021/2022. It starts at November 15th, but it is a self-paced course and you can join when you want.
https://www.survey-xact.no/LinkCollector?key=DAWLQDMNSK32
PREP network
In the PREP Network everyone intersted in education for health care professionals and equity in health can join.
The network consist of the initial project group and all others who are interested. Initially, it started as a student network, but is from 2021 a common network to continue the work and discussions within the PREP project.
If you ar interested in joining, please send us an e-mail, or visit us at twitter, linkedIn or facebook.
Network board
William Hale, University of Birmingham, co-ordinator of the network
“‘I am currently completing my MSc in Physiotherapy at The University of Birmingham and due to start as a qualified physio summer 2020. My interest in physiotherapy for refugees has come from a volunteering experience at St Chad’s Sanctuary in Birmingham, UK in which I was able to see both refugee’s newly arriving in the UK and the continuing long term support needed in adapting to life in the UK. I feel the PREP is an invaluable opportunity to learn from experts in the field and an exciting time to be apart of a newly forming course.”
Nika Lekovsek, Alma Mater University, Slovenia.
“I am greatly interested in public health and how to, as a physiotherapist, help people re-discover what their bodies are capable. My second interest is working with refugees, or I rather say, people, coming from a different culture, where movement is of even lesser value than for us Europeans. Im involved in the MINT project, where we focus on children with an immigrant background”.
Franziska Grünberg-Lemli, physiotherapist, Germany
Esra Alagöz, physiotherapist at Independent Doctor’s Association, Turkey
Regina Escher, physiotherpist, Germany
Whitney Eaden, physiotherapy student, Australia
Planned conferences
We are attending the digital International week at HAN University, 3rd – 5th of February 2021.
PREP conference: We would like to welcome you to the first PREP international conference 25th -26th of June 2021. The conference will be digital with several local meetings.
