The current study sought to examine resettled Iraqi refugees’ recognition of trauma-related psychopathology and the association between recognition and help-seeking. Participants were 66 men and women aged 18 to 70 years with clinically significant symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) recruited from a larger, community-based sample in Western Sydney, Australia. Participants were presented with a vignette of a fictional character who had been exposed to trauma prior to leaving Iraq and who was suffering from symptoms of PTSD. Participants were then asked if they believed that they might currently have a problem such as the one described in the vignette. Approximately half (50.8%) of participants believed that they might currently have a problem such as the one described in the vignette and one third (33.3%) of participants had ever sought help for such a problem. Participants who believed that they might currently have a problem like the one described were 13 times more likely to have sought help for such a problem, controlling for demographic characteristics, trauma-related symptomatology, and levels of general psychological distress. Poor self-recognition level of trauma-related psychopathology among resettled Iraqi refugees may be a barrier to help-seeking and may therefore be an important target for health promotion and early intervention initiatives.

Item Type:	Refereed Article
Keywords:	help-seeking, mental health literacy, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), resettled refugees, self-recognition
Research Division:	Health Sciences
Research Group:	Health services and systems
Research Field:	Mental health services
Objective Division:	Health
Objective Group:	Public health (excl. specific population health)
Objective Field:	Mental health
UTAS Author:	Mond, J (Dr Jon Mond)
ID Code:	140758
Year Published:	2021 (online first 2020)
Web of Science® Times Cited:	2
Deposited By:	UTAS Centre for Rural Health
Deposited On:	2020-09-03
Last Modified:	2021-05-18
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