Investigation of access to physiotherapy services for refugee children living in Ankara

The concept of migration has been an important agenda issue in the world for different reasons throughout history. Türkiye has long been a country that has received immigration. Especially with the mass migration in recent years, there has been pressure in many service sectors and this affects service accessibility. Among the immigrant population, there is a significant population with disabilities and in need of physiotherapy. There is no study in the literature examining refugees' access to services in the field of physiotherapy. The aim of our study is to examine the access of refugee children with physiotherapy needs living in Ankara to physiotherapy services, the difficulties in access, and the level of knowledge of families about the condition of their children. Refugee children and their families (n=100), aged 7-18, residing in Ankara and living in Türkiye for at least the last 13 months, were included in the study. A survey was created based on literature examine refugee children's access to physiotherapy. GMFCS was applied to determine the mobility level of the children and WeeFIM was applied to measure the level of functional independence. A total of 100 participants, 47 girls and 53 boys, were included in the study. 24% of the participants stated that they had not used physiotherapy services for more than a year, 21% for at least a year, 34% for at least six months, and 21% stated that they were currently receiving services. Among the reasons for not benefiting from physiotherapy services over than 6 months, transportation (57%), economy (67%) and appointment (39%) were the most common reasons, while language barrier (9%) and not thinking that physiotherapy was necessary (8%) followed them. There was no statistically significant difference between the frequency of access to physiotherapy and GMFCS levels and WeeFIM scores (p = 0.129, p = 0.411). However, a significant difference was found between the presence or absence of home programs given by a physiotherapist and WeeFIM scores. (p = 0.034). It has been found that socio-economic factors such as lack of information about treatment opportunities, transportation problems, economy, language barrier, not being able to make an appointment, not thinking it is necessary, home program and Covid are effective on the frequency of access to physiotherapy services (p < 0.05). As a result, the necessity of taking into consideration these socio-cultural factors in comprehensive policies to be created, for the sake of efforts in improving children's access to physiotherapy services is revealed. Key words: Refugees with disabilities, physiotherapy and rehabilitation, accessibility