The Federal Ministry of Health signs the Diversity Charter
3 March 2015. At the event to launch the Focus Year on "Health and Long-term Care in the Immigrant Society", held at the Federal Chancellery on 3 March 2015, the Parliamentary State Secretary, Annette Widmann-Mauz signed the Diversity Charter on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Health.
We want migrants to have the same access to our health insurance system as the rest of us. In signing the Diversity Charter, we are sending out a signal. It says that the Federal Ministry of Health feels committed not only to promoting and demanding diversity politically, but also to taking responsibility, itself, for shaping this diversity. It is a diversity based on acceptance and mutual trust. Diversity requires role models and examples worth emulating. We, as a ministry, wish to serve as an example for this diversity.
Within the framework of the event, discussions were held by the Parliamentary State Secretary and Minister of State Aydan Özoğuz with actors from the health care system and migrant organisations about how the health and long-term care system needs to adapt in a society which is diversified in terms of language, culture and religion.
Ensuring a good supply of health care
The Federal Ministry of Health conducts numerous measures to help ensure and continue to improve access by migrants to good health care.
In the light of the rising number of elderly migrants in need of long-term care, information on the available long-term care benefits and access to these benefits is to be improved. With the aim of enhancing counselling for persons in need of long-term care with a migrant background and their relatives, within the framework of long-term care support centres, a pilot project and an event together with migrant associations are in the pipeline.
In May 2015, a specialist conference on medical and long-term care for persons of Turkish origin in Germany is to be conducted with experts from both countries, together with the Turkish Ministry of Health in Berlin. The health ministers of both countries, Hermann Gröhe and Mehmet Müezzinoglu will be taking part.
The intercultural opening of hospitals is also one of the topics of the focus year on health. A symposium with the municipal hospital operator Vivantes in Berlin and Minister of State Aydan Özoğuz, will be conducted to exchange experience and gather suggestions regarding the intercultural opening of healthcare facilities.
With the aim of making prevention opportunities even more migrant-sensitive than in the past, the Preventive Health Care Act envisages continuous co-operation with migrant organisations within the framework of prevention fora.
In a move to improve the data situation, the Robert Koch Institute is conducting a survey on child and adolescent health among children with a migrant background. This will make it possible to take targeted measures to fortify their health.
Improvements are also to be made to the provision of healthcare for refugees. Together with the responsible Federal Laender, a proposal is currently being drawn up to make it possible for all of the Federal Laender to introduce a health card for asylum seekers.
The Federal Centre for Health Education already publishes information on health topics in various languages. A new health portal "Migration and Health" is, from now on, to collate information material on medical care for refugees and asylum seekers, along with information on migration and integration issues that are relevant to health. The initiatives conducted by the Federal Centre for Health Education in 2015 also include the development of further-training and qualification measures for persons who help and attend to asylum seekers.