The relationship between violence and depression in migrant women through their experiences in care services.

Abstract

Based on ethnographic work with undocumented immigrant women who developed depressive episodes due to various forms of violence, this article recovers the women's experience of care in the clinic space of their host country. Through therapeutic itineraries of care, the article focuses on the case studies of two women of Mexican origin in New York City to describe, based on their experience, the communication and the encounter between the doctor and patient; the expectations of migrant women regarding mental health care services; and the explanatory models of depression of both the patients and the treating physicians. This analysis seeks to contribute to the knowledge regarding ways of treating the mental health problems of undocumented women in contexts of violence.