TY - JOUR T1 - Helping refugee children thrive: what we know and where to next JF - Archives of Disease in Childhood JO - Arch Dis Child DO - 10.1136/archdischild-2017-314055 SP - archdischild-2017-314055 AU - Karen Zwi AU - Lisa Woodland AU - Sarah Mares AU - Santuri Rungan AU - Pamela Palasanthiran AU - Katrina Williams AU - Susan Woolfenden AU - Adam Jaffe Y1 - 2017/12/23 UR - http://adc.bmj.com/content/early/2017/12/23/archdischild-2017-314055.abstract N2 - Australia offers a small but well-regarded refugee programme offering extensive support to the 13 750 refugees settled in the country each year, after the processing of their protection claims by the United Nations. Since 2015, a further 12 000 resettlement places have been allocated to Syrian and Iraqi refugees.1 Globally, there are an estimated 65 million people around the world currently displaced, half of whom are children under 18 years of age.2 These children are exposed to cumulative risks associated with poor developmental and social–emotional health outcomes.3–6Successful settlement of refugee children and their families is of global importance and presents a challenge to health professionals in implementing known evidence to optimise development and social–emotional health in childhood and to produce a better chance of lifetime good health and success, including mental health, employment and socioeconomic status.7–9 With a well-coordinated and evidence-based response, there is potential to produce excellent outcomes for displaced children. Presented here is a summary of findings from a body of evidence developed in our local setting in regional Australia to inform future service development for displaced children. We argue that there is an urgent need for further investment in long-term outcomes and make recommendations on how we can continue to develop the evidence base to support optimal well-being for displaced children in Australia and other high-income settings.For health professionals to provide safe, high quality, culturally responsive care to refugee populations, an understanding of the multiple barriers to care is required. Specific strategies and tools to empower families can improve clinician–patient relationships, service delivery and health outcomes.10We have shown that accessible healthcare for refugees is achievable through community-based models that include primary care, refugee health nurses and specialised paediatric refugee referral services and has the added value of integrating the whole family … ER -