Resource Tag: REFUGEES

Background Refugees, and other forcibly displaced people, face mental distress and may be disproportionately affected by risk factors for suicide. Little is known about suicidal behaviour in these highly mobile populations because collecting timely, relevant, and reliable data is challenging. Methods and findings A systematic review was performed to identify studies of any design reporting […]

The refugee crisis is one of the worst humanitarian crises of the 21st century. Refugee mothers endure elevated rates of mental health problems, such as depression, anxiety, trauma, and suicidality. However, existing interventions for mothers who are refugees are scarce and rarely provide adequate support for their specific mental health needs and challenges. Thus, this […]

Purpose Refugees, especially minors, who often have experienced traumatic events, are a vulnerable group regarding poor mental health. Little is known, however, of their risk of suicidal behaviour as young adults. We aimed to investigate the risk of suicidal behaviour for young adult refugees who migrated as minors. The moderating role of education and history […]

Background and aim: We aimed to assess rates and background factors of suicide among unaccompanied minors/youth (10-21 years of age) seeking asylum in Sweden in 2017, and to compare these rates with rates in the Swedish general population of the same age. Method: Data were collected and validated using information from four governmental agencies and two nongovernmental organizations. […]

Abstract Background: Few studies of the healthy immigrant effect (HIE) have examined the mental health outcomes of Canadian‑born individuals on a national scale compared with immigrants by admission category. This study fills this gap by examining the self‑reported mental health (SRMH) of immigrants by admission category and other immigration dimensions (e.g., source world region and […]

Purpose There is a lack of research on whether healthcare use before and after a suicide attempt differs between refugees and the host population. We aimed to investigate if the patterns of specialised (inpatient and specialised outpatient) psychiatric and somatic healthcare use, 3 years before and after a suicide attempt, differ between refugees and the Swedish-born […]

Samra Habib has spent most of her life searching for the safety to be herself. As an Ahmadi Muslim growing up in Pakistan, she faced regular threats from Islamic extremists who believed the small, dynamic sect to be blasphemous. From her parents, she internalized the lesson that revealing her identity could put her in grave […]

It is well documented that refugees and asylum seekers (RAS) experience high levels of mental illness. This is also true of sexual and/or gender minority (SGM) individuals. Based on a literature summary, we present the current research on mental illness in individuals who experience the ‘multiple minority stress’ of being both SGM individuals and RAS.

We report the case of a young male refugee from Afghanistan who presented after a violent suicide attempt, likely precipitated in part by discrimination and social isolation experienced after immigrating to the United States. Common psychiatric comorbidities associated with immigration from war-torn nations are reviewed with a particular emphasis on how adequate screening and additional […]

Distress among young immigrant and refugee men has drawn increasing research attention in recent years. Nuanced understandings of distress are needed to inform mental health and public health programming. The purpose of this research was to examine distress from the perspectives of young immigrant and refugee men living in Greater Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Thirty-three […]

Leading experts examine suicidal behavior and its prevention in immigrants and their descendants – the fastest expanding proportion of the population in many European countries. Nearly half of the inhabitants of several large European cities, such as London, Berlin, or Amsterdam, and a rising proportion of many countries’ overall population, are immigrants or from an […]

Immigrant and refugee populations experience life stressors due to difficult migration journeys and challenges in leaving one country and adapting to another. These life stressors result in adverse mental health outcomes when coupled with a lack of adequate support- enhancing resources. One area of support is access to and use of mental health services to […]

Canada’s mental health response for incoming refugees should focus on fostering people’s wellness and recognizing the tremendous resilience of refugee populations. To do this, special attention needs to be paid to the unique needs of individual refugees – their experiences of trauma, loss, separation from family and friends, their hopes and goals for the future. […]

Canada’s mental health response for incoming refugees should focus on fostering people’s wellness and recognizing the tremendous resilience of refugee populations. To do this, special attention needs to be paid to the unique needs of individual refugees – their experiences of trauma, loss, separation from family and friends, their hopes and goals for the future. […]

Do refugees have lower levels of positive mental health than other migrants? If so, to what extent is this attributable to post-migration experiences, including discrimination? How does gender affect the relationships between post-migration experience and positive mental health? To address these questions, the current study uses data from Statistics Canada’s 2013 General Social Survey (GSS), […]

Canada has accepted over 35,000 Syrian refugees since November 2015; just under half of these refugees are under the age of 15 (Government of Canada, 2016; United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, 2016). This paper reviews the current literature on the pre- and postarrival mental health of refugee children and adolescents to determine (a) whether […]

Canada has been a sanctuary for refugees for many generations and is currently involved in welcoming a new cohort of Syrian refu­gees. Refugees represent a vulnerable population in Canada who require support in order to establish themselves and prevent the onset of mental illness. This article briefly describes Canada’s experience with refugees and then explores […]

Background: Asylum seekers have increased risk of suicide and suicidal behavior, with differences related to origin, gender, and age. There are barriers to communication in clinical encounters between asylum seekers and clinicians. There is insufficient knowledge about how communication in the clinical encounter affects the suicide risk in female asylum seekers. Aims: To explore the […]

We performed a systematic review of literature on violence and related health concerns among asylum seekers in high-income host countries. We extracted data from 23 peer-reviewed studies. Prevalence of torture, variably defined, was above 30% across all studies. Torture history in clinic populations correlated with hunger and posttraumatic stress disorder, although in small, nonrepresentative samples. […]