Migrants to Norway disproportionately use emergency medical services while under-using primary care, obviating the medical and cost advantages of the Regular General Practitioner (RGP) scheme. Little is known about migrants' use of the RGP scheme and the obstacles that affect ability and motivation to obtain or comply with treatment. The authors questioned 12 GPs around Oslo who serve migrants, using a semi-structured interview guide. GPs defined migrants in terms of socio-cultural difference rather than legal status, these differences often obstructing doctor-patient communication and understanding. GPs reported that migrants often seem helpless in dealing with the public health service owing to language difficulties, differences in expectations and a systemic failure to co-ordinate care. The findings suggest the importance of providing information about health services in a migrant's mother tongue upon arrival in Norway, of GPs taking detailed patient histories from the beginning to identify obstacles to communication and treatment, and of co-ordinating emergency services with other care

No abstract

Various countries in Europe have different strategies for promoting care solutions for dementia challenges. The different approaches of Austria, Belgium, Czechia, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Gibraltar, Ireland, Israel, Malta, Nederland, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom (Scotland and Wales) were investigated. Dementia has a significant social, psychological and economic impact on the individual, family and society.  As the disease progresses dementia sufferers become increasingly dependent. As many dementia sufferers are at home during the initial stages, the physical, emotional, and social demands of the dementia sufferers are often covered by informal caregivers. This study, therefore, aims to investigate the integration of psychosocial interventions for comprehensive care pertaining to informal caregivers of people with dementia in Europe. Furthermore, the study will highlight how implementation of technologies might enable psychosocial support of informal caregivers. The data is based on 15 national dementia strategies from various European countries. Data was based on preexisting coding systems with the predefined keywords and analyzed by qualitative content analysis by four of the authors. Our results show that psychosocial support is provided in various modalities and that informal caregivers need to be supported by a psychosocial approach. Due to this need the national dementia strategies should include measures to reduce the emotional burden of informal caregivers. Psychosocial support provided to informal caregivers in a comprehensive and systematic way is likely to enable informal caregivers to handle the emotional, cognitive, and behavioral consequences of the disease and its treatment, while helping to maintain their work-life balance.