Ethical Considerations for Health Care in Social Work in Jordan: What Could Bring Joy to Elderly Refugees in Times of Despair?^*

* The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author, Almakhamreh, S. The data are not publicly available due to restrictions, their containing information that could compromise the privacy of research participants, they were frequent visitors and known in the health care setting.

ABSTRACT

Elderly refugees in Jordanian healthcare settings are a vulnerable group. Most of them come from a collectivist culture where family members are the main source of care. Many elderly refugees can no longer work as they did, and are in need of professional intervention from social workers who will take account of their cultural values and beliefs. This exploratory study seeks to understand the role that religion has in the lives of displaced elderly refugees and the impact of those perspectives on how they make sense of their circumstances. Using a qualitative design the methodology drew upon focus group discussions, semi-structured interviews and ethnographic participant observation in the gathering and analysis of data. The study highlights the important role that religious beliefs and values play both in maintaining and enhancing elderly refugee’s sense of community, security and mental well-being, and the fundamental importance of the same in their interactions with professionals. A key finding is that religious sensitivity and awareness are critical to good social work practice with religious elderly refugees from the Arab world. It is also suggested that the findings of this study can be transferred to other populations and age groups.

KEYWORDS:

• Social work
• refugees
• elderly
• Jordan
• religion
• health care

Acknowledgements

Gratitude and many thanks go to all elderly people refugee participants and the professionals for their time, effort and willingness to add to this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributors

Sahar Suleiman AlMakhamreh has been a lecturer on the BA social work programme at Al-Balqa Applied University/Princess Rahma University College in Jordan since 2005. She has also been a Head of Department and Dean Assistant for Developing and Planning, and leading the establishment of a Master's programme of social work for migrations and refugees at German Jordanian University focusing currently on developing social work with refugees and professionalising social work and she has many international publications.

Notes

* The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author, Almakhamreh, S. The data are not publicly available due to restrictions, their containing information that could compromise the privacy of research participants, they were frequent visitors and known in the health care setting.