The aim of this qualitative study was to explore pregnant refugee women’s experiences and perceived needs while navigating the US maternity-care system. Using grounded-theory principles, this community-based study was conducted with the doulas of Jericho Road Health Center’s Priscilla Project of Buffalo, which provides pregnant refugee women with culturally and/or linguistically matched doulas and peer mentors in Western New York. Data was sourced from two focus groups and five structured interviews with 13 of the Priscilla Project of Buffalo (PPB) doulas between February and May of 2017. Themes emerged from the data centred on cross-cultural comparisons that contextualize how pregnant refugee women engage with the US maternity-care system, the challenges women face in navigating this and other US systems, and the role of community supports in facilitating navigation. Findings highlight the need for culturally informed and responsive support of refugee women that carry beyond the scope of the delivery room and into the day-to-day navigation of the many systems that influence health and wellbeing.

Public policy debate about guns continues in the United States, with many professional organizations taking strong stands in policy statements. Moreover, many clinical organizations have provided recommendations for practitioners to use with clients to encourage gun safety in the home, particularly for vulnerable populations such as families with young children and those at risk of suicide. Social workers are in an excellent position to encourage gun safety with some of the most at-risk populations; however, clinical guidelines and research on preventing gun violence has lagged in social work compared to other disciplines. In this article we examine the importance of gun safety for social work clients (with special attention to families with children, families experiencing violence, and individuals at risk of suicide), consider the recommendations made by other professional organizations, and provide some initial thoughts about how social workers might engage with the families they serve to reduce the incidence of gun violence.

No abstract

No abstract