This policy brief draws lessons from the pandemic on how to ensure that groups with a migrant background and a first language other than Swedish can access information during a health crisis. The study is based on focus group interviews and in-depth individual interviews with staff who have been involved at various levels in the region’s health communication work and strategy, representatives of civil society, and residents of Järva and Södertälje. The policy brief sets out proposals for long-term preparatory work focused on inclusive communication in the event of future health crises and other serious crises affecting society.

The policy brief is based on a research project funded by the Swedish Research Council where researchers at the Transcultural Centre and Uppsala University have since 2022 been monitoring and analysing how Region Stockholm, in collaboration with a range of other societal actors, worked to disseminate up-to-date and target-group-specific health and crisis information during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Key conclusions and recommendations 

  • Ensure that communication during health crises is linguistically and culturally appropriate.
  • Start building and maintaining long-term, trust-based local partnerships between public authorities and civil society organisations, religious communities and other locally based actors today, before a crisis occurs.
  • Ensure that regions have established structures for dialogue-based communication in different languages.
  • Ensure the conditions are in place to set up multilingual helplines and collaborate with locally based community organisations.
  • In the event of a crisis, involve representatives from multilingual groups and groups with a migrant background in the planning, design and evaluation of crisis communication at both central and local levels to strengthen participation, relevance and trust.
  • Counteract the stigmatisation of population groups before, during and after a crisis.
  • Integrate experience and knowledge of intercultural crisis communication into routine contingency planning, training and exercise programmes within the health and social care sector and other relevant authorities.
  • Ensure that contingency planning is based on a knowledge base that is representative of society as a whole.

About the authors

Sofie Bäärnhielm, Associate Professor, Specialist in Psychiatry and Licensed Doctor, Karolinska Institutet; Andreas Önver Cetrez, Professor of Psychology of Religion, Uppsala University; Soorej Jose Puthoopparambil, Associate Professor and Senior Lecturer at the Department of Women's and Children's Health, International Child Health and Nutrition, Uppsala University; Baidar Al-Ammari, Health Communicator, Transkulturellt Centrum; and Mattias Strand, Senior Consultant at Transkulturellt Centrum and Associate Professor at Karolinska Institutet.

The policy brief was published on 24 September 2026.

Photo: Getty Images via Unsplash.