In her nine years at Mater, Meryl Jones has provided a guiding hand to many individuals and families who are newly arrived in Australia.
Meryl is the Nurse Unit Manager of the Mater Integrated Refugee Health Service and works closely with refugee and asylum seeker families to improve their health outcomes and understanding of how to navigate the Australian health system.
“There are two components to the services provided by the refugee health nursing team, one is to see all new humanitarian arrivals on a refugee visa who are referred to us from the Settlement Service and the second part is the Mater Refugee Complex Care Clinic for refugees with complex medical care and for asylum seekers who don’t have Medicare,” Meryl said.
The first part of Meryl’s role involves her travelling to GP Practices across Brisbane to undertake health assessments and care coordination for up to 6 months.
“The health assessments involve not only physical health but psycho-social assessment to understand the social impacts on health and their ability to access services,” Meryl said.
“We work within a trauma informed framework to consider the refugee journey and its impact on health as well as the impact of settlement in Australia on health.
“We talk to them about preventative healthcare, something they are not always familiar with, and explain measures that are in place in Australia such as breast screening and immunisation. We can also refer to other services such as dentists and optometrists and talk to them about the things they can do to keep themselves well, guiding them through the process.
“Essentially we are advocates for them and are always looking for ways to support our patients and build our workforce.”
With two to five new families referred to the service each week, Meryl spends a lot of her time out in the community providing services close to where people live rather than asking them to travel into hospital to attend a clinic.
“We see people in family groups so we could be doing one health assessment for a family of 16 and we work alongside the GP practice and their staff.”
While Meryl has worked at Mater for nine years she started out as a nurse in Mater Children’s Hospital Emergency Department but always had an interest in refugee health. She took her Tropical Nurses qualification in the UK and undertook a nurse immuniser course and when an opening came up, Meryl grasped the opportunity and hasn’t looked back.
“I love my job,” Meryl said.
“I am incredibly lucky to be able to work in a role advocating for people and guiding them through the complexity of Australian healthcare to keep them well and out of hospital.
“When I go on my visits to GP practices I still see patients, five years on, who are now speaking English and have jobs and it is lovely to see.”