Refugee education sessions improve pharmacy education and public health

Our Refugee Medication Health Literacy Program is one of the only programs in the country that assists displaced refugees with medication management education through culturally sensitive materials. This community-driven outreach initiative helps newly arrived refugees entering the Western New York area learn how to navigate the U.S. healthcare system. 

Small group teaching sessions work to improve medication literacy for newly arrived refugees from across the globe and gives them a better understanding of the U.S. healthcare system, including how, when, and why medications have been provided to them. The sessions also provide them with the opportunity to ask questions and feel more comfortable working with a pharmacist.

Gina Prescott, PharmD, director, global and community outreach and clinical professor, Department of Pharmacy Practice, leads the sessions and says they help educate our students just as much as they help educate newly arrived refugees. “The program teaches our students how to work with patients who have limited health literacy, how to recognize their different needs, as well as how to work with an interpreter to understand different cultural perspectives on health.”

The first education session was held on February 29 at the International Institute of Buffalo, an organization dedicated to improving the future of Western New York for immigrants and refugees. At the session SPPS faculty, students and alumni helped educate 14 newly arrived refugees speaking Farci, Arabic, Burmese, Spanish and Swahili.

The second education session on March 14 was held at the Buffalo Public Schools Adult Education Division, English Language School, an educational and workforce skills training provider in Western New York that helps non-native speakers develop English language skills. During this session, 30 newly arrived refugees speaking Farci, Arabic, Bengali, Vietnamese, Ukrainian, Portuguese, French, Somali, Spanish and Swahili were assisted.

Both education sessions taught newly arrived refugees essential aspects of medication use including how to navigate the U.S. pharmacy and healthcare system, understand medication side effects, interpret medication labels, determine pediatric dosing and use dosing tools.

Some commentary from former refugee workshop participants included, “It was very important to learn the proper way to measure,” “I learned how to remove the childproof lids from the bottles, which I didn't know how to do,” and “I found it useful particularly information pertaining to reading actual labels, showing the medication bottles, and medication safety.”

Prescott has future plans to expand and enhance the Refugee Medication Health Literacy Program. She looks forward to continuing to work with the International Institute of Buffalo and English language schools to provide additional programming on topics such as preventative health and non-communicable diseases.