Abstract
BackgroundChildren and young refugees often experience negative events that affect their mental health. Their caregivers may also be in the same predicament, implying that the teachers in schools are a potential source of help and support. However, most teachers have little understanding of mental health and are, thus, clueless in helping their students. To address this need, a newly developed one-day mental health literacy programme was conducted among 68 refugee teachers in Malaysia.MethodsParticipants learned the symptoms of mental health issues among children and adolescents in the context of post-trauma, provision of early intervention, and channel for professional supports. They also answered a packet of measurements of mental health literacy before and after the programme.ResultsThe paired sample t-test showed that participants reported higher willingness to contact with people having mental health problems (t = 2.787, P = 0.008, Cohen’s d = 0.394), less stereotypes toward mental illness (t = 4.603, P < 0.001, d = 0.651) and a better understanding of self-help strategies (t = 2.16, P = .036, d = 0.322) than baseline.ConclusionThe results of this study offered preliminary empirical evidence on the effectiveness of the programme as a promising channel for alleviating mental health issues among refugees.
Highlights
The Malaysian National Health and Morbidity Survey [1] reported that emotional disorder among youth had increased from 20.3% in 2006 to 29.2% in 2015 and identified adolescents and emerging adults as high-risk groups for suicide
With 175,760 registered refugees and asylum-seekers in Malaysia (45,470 of them are children aged below 18 years) [2], it is reasonable to assume refugee children and adolescents leaving their homeland to a foreign land as asylum seekers are prone to mental health issues
To access healthcare services provided by nongovernmental organisations such as the A Call to Service (ACTS), Health Equity Initiative (HEI), Kuala Lumpur Buddhist Tzu Chi free clinic and Malaysian Social Research Institute (MSRI) due to financial and language difficulties as well as their social-cultural beliefs [7]
Summary
The Malaysian National Health and Morbidity Survey [1] reported that emotional disorder among youth had increased from 20.3% in 2006 to 29.2% in 2015 and identified adolescents (aged 15 to years) and emerging adults (aged to 25 years) as high-risk groups for suicide. Refugees aged 14 to 27 years in Malaysia reported extreme levels of anxiety, stress and depression [6]. The present study was undertaken to examine effectiveness of a newly developed mental health literacy programme for refugee teachers in Malaysia. Children and young refugees often experience negative events that affect their mental health Their caregivers may be in the same predicament, implying that the teachers in schools are a potential source of help and support. Most teachers have little understanding of mental health and are, clueless in helping their students To address this need, a newly developed one-day mental health literacy programme was conducted among 68 refugee teachers in Malaysia
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