Migrants and health: a cultural dilemma

Culture profoundly affects what those who come to the UK as migrants believe about disease and thus how they behave during illness. Their beliefs may be very different from the beliefs of healthcare professionals and so there can be difficulties in understanding and barriers which inhibit effective clinical management. The behaviour of healthcare professionals towards those of a different race can lead to feelings of discrimination and lack of sympathy, so that a gulf can be allowed to develop. This gulf can be bridged if simple measures are adopted: training in communication, culturally sensitive health-promotion programmes, specific programmes relevant for those of defined ethnic groups and, as a basic means to increase confidence and trust, elementary skills in the language of the migrants.