[Migration-sensitive care strategies in inpatient rehabilitation in Austria: Results of a mixed-methods study]

The aim of the present study was to investigate challenges related to the inpatient rehabilitation of people with a migration background in Austria, as well as the ways facility staff addressed these challenges. Furthermore, existing migration-sensitive care concepts or measures in Austrian rehabilitation clinics, potential supporting and impeding factors for their implementation and further development potentials were examined.

The study uses a mixed-methods approach. In addition to a questionnaire survey in which 18 inpatient rehabilitation facilities participated, 20 topic-guided expert interviews were conducted with members of various professional groups working in Austrian inpatient rehabilitation facilities. The survey data were analyzed descriptively, while the interviews were analyzed using qualitative content analysis.

The most common challenges in everyday rehabilitative care included language and communication barriers, as well as expectations and perceptions among rehabilitation patients that were not sufficiently taken into account by the facilities. Rehabilitation facilities have already implemented various migration-sensitive care measures of migration-sensitive care; however, systematic approaches and interpreting services in particular have so far only been used sporadically. The main obstacles to the implementation of migration-sensitive care strategies were financial, personnel-related and organisational challenges.

The results provide up-to-date insights into the reality of rehabilitative care of people with a migrant background in Austria and show that facility representatives are aware of the individual care needs arising from the increasing intercultural diversity of rehabilitation patients. They also point to structural and organizational deficits, as well as opportunities for improvement in the context of current health policy challenges.