Populations at Special Health Risk: Displaced Populations

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Displacement as a result of natural disaster, civil strife, and war has become a global problem, with the number of refugees and internally displaced persons numbering in the tens of millions. Displacement is associated with increased health risks, due to infectious diseases and other physical illnesses, psychological conditions, and reproductive health issues, with vulnerable populations, such as the infirm, women, children, and the elderly, at particular risk. The public health response can be difficult because of logistic, cultural, and political factors but must include attention to the specific physical and cultural needs of the people affected and educational and capacity-building strategies.

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Dr. Samantha Thomas is a medical sociologist at Monash University, Australia. Samantha initially worked at addressing social problems and health inequalities at the grassroots and policy levels internationally in the Pacific, Africa, and Eastern Europe, before working at the WHO headquarters in Geneva in health and human rights, mental health, and indigenous peoples' health. She was a contributing author to the World Health Report on Mental Health in 2001. Her current research involves the social and cultural dimensions of health and well-being, with particular emphasis on vulnerable populations.

Dr. Stuart Thomas is a Senior Lecturer in the Centre for Forensic Behavioural Science in the School of Psychology, Psychiatry & Psychological Medicine at Monash University, Melbourne, Australia.

Professor Paul Komesaroff is a practicing physician and Professor within the Faculty of Medicine at Monash University. He has an international reputation in health-care ethics and has a major impact on the field of clinical ethics in Australia. He has developed expertise in both qualitative and quantitative investigations of the social and cultural dimensions of health and health care, which has led to numerous peer-reviewed articles and extensive national and international collaborations. Professor Komesaroff believes that one of the objects of medical research is to contribute to the improvement of clinical practice and the development of new, more effective social policies. In order to achieve these goals most effectively, it is important to draw on a wide range of forms of knowledge and expertise and to undertake rigorous and precise data collection, using the methodological strategies that are most appropriate to the task at hand.

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