Immigrated, interculturally-married women in South Korea:Mental health status, health care utilization, and suggested policy directions

Korea is becoming a multi-cultural society. The Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Gender Equality and the Family play central roles in creating policies to support marriage-based immigrants. Various services, including Korean language and culture, have been provided through Multi-Cultural Family Support Centres based on the ‘Multi-cultural Families Support Act’. However, health care policies for immigrants are relatively scarce. The ever-increasing multi-cultural population in Korea poses a significant challenge to nurses offering individualized care to their clients. The author reviews articles and reports related to marriage-based immigrant women’s health status, behaviors, and health care service utilization in Korea, and proposes policy directions as follows: integration of the health care system with language, culture, and health literacy; development of national standards on culturally and linguistically appropriate services; development of an assessment instrument and individualized intervention programs; and vitalizing functions of the Public Health Centers.