Abstract
The Mental Health Commission of Canada’s (MHCC) strategy calls for promoting the health and wellbeing of all Canadians and to improve mental health outcomes. Each year, one in every five Canadians experiences one or more mental health problems, creating a significant cost to the health system. Mental health is pivotal to holistic health and wellbeing. This paper presents the key findings of a comprehensive literature review of Canadian research on the relationship between settlement experiences and the mental health and well-being of immigrants and refugees. A scoping review was conducted following a framework provided by Arskey and O’Malley (Int J Soc Res Methodol 8:19–32, 2005). Over two decades of relevant literature on immigrants’ health in Canada was searched. These included English language peer-reviewed publications from relevant online databases Medline, Embase, PsycInfo, Healthstar, ERIC and CINAHL between 1990 and 2015. The findings revealed three important ways in which settlement affects the mental health of immigrants and refugees: through acculturation related stressors, economic uncertainty and ethnic discrimination. The recommendations for public health practice and policy are discussed.
Highlights
Public health is concerned with the prevention of disease and with the promotion and protection of health in ways that promote social justice [1]
This paper presents the findings of a scoping review that focuses on the relationship between settlement experiences and mental health and wellbeing for immigrants and refugees in Canada
The findings from the scoping review identified that settlement related experiences are important to consider in relation to immigrant mental health
Summary
Public health is concerned with the prevention of disease and with the promotion and protection of health in ways that promote social justice [1]. This paper presents the findings of a scoping review that focuses on the relationship between settlement experiences and mental health and wellbeing for immigrants and refugees in Canada. It builds on existing knowledge in capturing the mental health needs of diverse immigrant groups and makes a case for a holistic approach to public health intervention with immigrants and refugees. The mental health needs and importance of public health intervention for many small communities are not well captured in most studies using national samples. The paper is divided into four sections Following this introduction we provide a brief background that helps us contextualise the impact of settlement experiences on immigrants’ mental health. Section three discusses the findings of the review and section four discusses the recommendations for public health that emerge from the review
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