Migrants and their primary care providers meet in consultations without having shared language and cultural background. These cross-cultural consultations can significantly disrupt communication with negative effects for both patients and providers. There are evidence based guidelines and training initiatives to address this but they are not routinely used in daily practice.
RESTORE was an EU funded qualitative project conducted in Austria, England, Greece, Ireland and the Netherlands (2011 – 2015) designed using a sociological theory. In RESTORE, migrants, primary care providers, health service planners and interpreters worked together using a participatory research approach, which is designed to give every one involved an equal voice. These stakeholders succesfully identified and implemented guidelines and training initiatives in a primary care setting in each country. We found evidence of changes in day-to-day practice that were considered positive by migrants and their healthcare providers. However, we do not know if these changes have been sustained over time. Furthermore, we know that using a participatory research approach can sometimes bring about other unintended benefits and we do not know if this has been the case in RESTORE.
The aim of this qualitative research is to follow-up the RESTORE implementation project with a specific objectives to address these two knowledge gaps. We will invite the stakeholders who were involved in the original project to come together and discuss whether changes have been sustained over time and whether there have been any unanticipated effects for them or for the primary care setting.
