Assessing Geospatial Barriers in Refugee Resettlement Communities: A Descriptive Exploration about How to Identify the Health and Other Resource Needs of Recently Resettled Refugee Women

Abstract

Citation Refugee women often arrive in the United States with extensive health care needs, yet Benson LS, Frost CJ, Gren LH, Jaggi significant barriers often prevent these women from accessing appropriate health care. Prelimi- R. Assessing geospatial barriers in refugee resettlement communities: a nary data suggests that refugee women living in Salt Lake County, Utah are largely immobile descriptive exploration about how to and experience great difficulty navigating outside their immediate neighbourhood. In addi- identify the health and other resource tion, many refugee groups and individuals are resettled into communities where apartments are needs of recently resettled refugee available without consideration of resource needs, i.e., access to public transportation, food and women. Women Health Open J. 2014; clothing retailers, schools, etc. This current research utilizes geographic information systems software to evaluate the geospatial barriers refugee women in a metropolitan areas face when seeking health and other resources. The analysis shows that, in addition to being spatially iso- lated from other refugees of their community of origin, these groups often reside in “resource deserts,” where resources are not in close proximity and significant barriers, such as multi- lane highways and reliable, timely public transportation prevent easy navigation. This study suggests that interventions seeking to improve refugee women’s health should evaluate the geographic barriers and seek to develop tools to expand the spatial mobility of these vulnerable populations.