INTERNATIONAL HEALTH COMMUNICATORS : Supporting Health and Integration

In an increasingly globalized world it is important to globalize in a narrow perspective “at home” in one’s own local health service. Since one year an International Health Communicator Project is running in the County Council of Blekinge, Sweden. The aim is to elaborate health promotion and disease prevention focusing immigrants with foreign languages and cultures to support integration in the Swedish society, improve health literacy and reduce health inequities among this population. In the project a group of immigrants from different countries learn to International Health Communicators and to work as health promoters with immigrants, both as a population and as individuals, in order to bridge a gap to health services, facilitate understanding and capability, and to promote health. To strengthen a health promotion approach the project has a participatory approach both for education and evaluation. Together the International Health Communicators, the project leaders and a researcher elaborate the education and training to International Health Communicators, and have monthly “developing and evaluation” meetings to support the learning process and the International Health Communication developing process. In this process the challenge is to develop a model for health communication that is flexible and useful for different immigrant groups and individuals, consistent with empowerment and integration building in the forth dimension of health promotion in the 21st century. A summative evaluation of the first project year with structure, process and impact evaluation will be reported in March.