Physicians, Nurses and Nurse Practitioners Ramping up Service for Refugee Care in Canada

SCARBOROUGH, ON--(Marketwired - November 10, 2015) - The humanitarian commitment of the new Federal Liberal government signals that Canada will soon begin receiving the first of at least 25,000 Syrian refugees. This number does not include the many who will make inland refugee claims in Canada. There will be many settlement support needed, not the least of which will be health, medical and social care.

The Canadian Centre for Refugee and Immigrant Health Care (CCRIHC) with our team of 40 volunteer physicians, nurses, nurse practitioners and others are preparing now to assist in the provision of medical care to our new Canadian arrivals. There will be children and youth -- some unaccompanied and separated from parents; pregnant women needing maternal and newborn care; and the elderly. There will be mental health needs and PTSD.

There continues to be others -- beyond the Syrian / Mediterranean crisis. The United Nations High Commission for Refugees reports that a mass of humanity numbering over 60 million refugees are displaced and homeless worldwide. They must not be lost amidst this crisis. Their needs are as great. The CCRIHC in Toronto continues to treat an unprecedented number of refugees, migrants, other displaced persons and asylum seekers from around the world.

For fifteen years The Canadian Centre for Refugee and Immigrant Health Care has been providing medical, dental and social health care and advocacy for refugees, the medically uninsured, and the urban poor as a first point of community access. The centre is volunteer-driven and operates on donations as well as public support. The volunteer team treats as many as 30 patients at a time, two evenings a week and some Saturdays. "We can see the way our federal and provincial governments are now moving to ease this humanitarian refugee crisis. The care we give is more urgent now than ever," according to Dr. Paul Caulford, the Centre's co-founder. The CCRIHC ... "because Canada means the world to us."
(CCRIHC.ca and CCRIHC/Facebook)

The CCRIHC calls on all Canadian physicians, dentists and allied health/social workers and agencies to prepare to assist Canada at this time.