University of Tasmania
Browse
150757 - Improving the mental wellbeing of Arabic speaking refugees, an evaluation of a mental health promotion program.pdf (928.97 kB)

Improving the mental wellbeing of Arabic speaking refugees: an evaluation of a mental health promotion program

Download (928.97 kB)
journal contribution
posted on 2023-05-21, 08:59 authored by Slewa-Younan, S, McKenzie, M, Thomson, R, Smith, M, Mohammad, Y, Jon MondJon Mond

Background

Refugee populations have particularly high rates of mental health problems, including Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and depression. However, uptake of mental health care may be low even when severe depression and PTSD symptoms are present in individuals following resettlement. This is likely due, at least in part, to cultural influences on refugees’ knowledge and beliefs about mental health problems and their treatment. We sought to provide preliminary evidence for the effectiveness of a culturally tailored mental health promotion program for Arabic-speaking refugees.

Methods

A total of 33 Arabic-speaking refugees resettled in South Western Sydney were recruited and completed intervention which consisted of weekly three-hour sessions for 4 weeks delivered in Arabic. Key aspects of mental health literacy, help-seeking intentions and levels of general psychological distress were assessed, by means of a self-report survey, pre-intervention, (immediately) post-intervention and 3 months following intervention.

Results

Of the 33 participants that completed the intervention, 31 completed the immediate post-intervention survey and 29 completed the 3 months follow-up survey. Improvements in most aspects of mental health literacy assessed were found immediately post-intervention and at follow-up, although only changes relating to stigmatising attitudes were statistically significant. Additionally, a statistically significant decrease in participants’ levels of general psychological distress was observed immediately following the intervention, and this decrease was sustained at follow-up.

Conclusion

While further research employing a more rigorous study design and larger sample size will be needed, results of this initial trial suggest that a culturally tailored mental health promotion program targeting key aspects of mental health literacy can improve the mental health of Arabic-speaking refugees resettled in a Western nation.

History

Publication title

BMC Psychiatry

Volume

20

Pagination

314

ISSN

1471-244X

Department/School

School of Health Sciences

Publisher

BioMed Central Ltd.

Place of publication

United Kingdom

Rights statement

© 2020. The Authors. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) License, (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.

Repository Status

  • Open

Socio-economic Objectives

Expanding knowledge in the health sciences

Usage metrics

    University Of Tasmania

    Exports

    RefWorks
    BibTeX
    Ref. manager
    Endnote
    DataCite
    NLM
    DC