The health mediator is the bridge between Roma communities and the health and social services. This measure is innovative for Bulgaria, but it has been successfully introduced and has proved its efficiency in many European countries for the improved access of Roma to health and social services and for overcoming discriminative attitudes toward them. In Spain and France, the health mediator program is twenty years old. In Bulgaria, the health mediator model was first launched in 2001 by the Ethnic Minorities Health Problems Foundation.

The almost-nonexistent healthcare culture in some regions, high rates of sickness, problems with diagnostics of illnesses that are comparatively easily spread, such as tuberculosis, and infant and mother mortality rates outline the alarming health profile of the Roma population. The introduction of the profession of the health mediator in Bulgaria aims to help overcome the problems related to health services for disadvantaged groups.

What is actually entailed in the job of a health mediator? Watch and find out.

This video was produced by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in cooperation with the National Network of Health Mediators - Bulgaria, as part of the EQUI HEALTH project, which is co-funded by the European Commission.