Abstract
BackgroundResettled refugees are a particularly vulnerable group. They have very high levels of mental health problems, in particular, trauma-related disorders, but very low uptake of mental health care. Evidence suggests that poor “mental health literacy”, namely, poor knowledge and understanding of the nature and treatment of mental health problems is a major factor in low or inappropriate treatment-seeking among individuals with mental health problems. This study used a culturally adapted Mental Health Literacy Survey method to determine knowledge of, and beliefs about, helpfulness of treatment interventions and providers for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) amongst resettled Iraqi refugees.Methods225 resettled Iraqi refugees in Western Sydney attending the Adult Migrant English Program (AMEP), federally funded English language tuition, were surveyed. A vignette of a fictional character meeting diagnostic criteria for PTSD was presented followed by the Mental Health Literacy Survey. PTSD symptomology was measured using the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire part IV (HTQ part IV), with Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K10) used to measure levels of general psychological distress.ResultsOnly 14.2% of participants labelled the problem as PTSD, with “a problem with fear” being the modal response (41.8%). A total of 84.9% respondents indicated that seeing a psychiatrist would be helpful, followed by reading the Koran or Bible selected by 79.2% of those surveyed. There was some variation in problem recognition and helpfulness of treatment, most notably influenced by the length of resettlement in Australia of the respondents.ConclusionsThese findings have important implications for the design and implementation of mental health promotion and treatment programs for resettled refugees and those who work with them.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12888-014-0320-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
IntroductionThey have very high levels of mental health problems, in particular, trauma-related disorders, but very low uptake of mental health care
Clinical characteristics Approximately one third (31.1%) of participants met the threshold (≥2.5) for clinically significant posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptomatology according to the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire (HTQ)
In comparison, reported rates of PTSD in National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing (NSMHWB) ranged from 6.4% for 12 months prevalence to 12.2% for lifetime presence, which are between two to five fold less than in our sample
Summary
They have very high levels of mental health problems, in particular, trauma-related disorders, but very low uptake of mental health care. This study used a culturally adapted Mental Health Literacy Survey method to determine knowledge of, and beliefs about, helpfulness of treatment interventions and providers for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) amongst resettled Iraqi refugees. Refugees are a population vulnerable to disorders of both physical [7] and mental health [8,9], even after resettlement. Resettled refugees are significantly less likely than the general population to utilise hospital services [10], despite a higher prevalence of trauma related mental health disorders. As such, gaining an appreciation of an individual’s understanding of mental health can provide insight into their willingness to access care for mental health concerns
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