Social and structural factors that influence refugee women’s use of mental health care services in Canada: A narrative review

Background: There is an increasing number of female refugees entering Canada with mental health service needs. The aim of this paper is to identify social and structural factors that influence Canadian refugee women’s use (or lack thereof) of mental health care services. Methods: This review follow...

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Main Authors: Shreya Mahajan, Samantha B. Meyer
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Edizioni FS 2019-11-01
Series:Journal of Health and Social Sciences
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author Shreya Mahajan
Samantha B. Meyer
author_facet Shreya Mahajan
Samantha B. Meyer
author_sort Shreya Mahajan
collection DOAJ
description Background: There is an increasing number of female refugees entering Canada with mental health service needs. The aim of this paper is to identify social and structural factors that influence Canadian refugee women’s use (or lack thereof) of mental health care services. Methods: This review follows Rosella Ferrari’s Narrative Review Framework. The PRISMA statement was used for the search strategy. A total of 430 articles were retrieved across PubMed/Medline, Scopus, and ProQuest. A final 24 articles were used in our paper after full-text screenings. Data presented in the review were organized by themes that emerged in various papers. The final section is used to highlight the main points of this review, establish future research directions, and explain how the review as achieved the research objective. Results and Discussion: Our findings unveil the complexities of refugee status, discrimination and stigma, the social experience of gender, and previous health experiences in relation to how they influence mental health service use. Additionally, culture and cultural competency as they are regarded in health care offer insightful explanations for understanding the relationships between patient and physician which ultimately influences use of services. Finally, this paper uncovers policies and power divides between patients and doctors that impacts how mental health care is welcomed by women who are refugees. Conclusions: Data suggest that social support innovations are desirable by refugee women in Canada but that further research is required to mitigate social and structural barriers to seeking care. Practice and research recommendations are provided for agendas focused on improving mental health service use.
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spelling doaj-art-80ac1b2c0f82451a8c76c0750b9317452025-01-18T18:20:29ZengEdizioni FSJournal of Health and Social Sciences2499-22402499-58862019-11-014334535810.19204/2019/scln2Social and structural factors that influence refugee women’s use of mental health care services in Canada: A narrative reviewShreya Mahajan0Samantha B. Meyer1BHS, MSc, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Canada, School of Public Health and Health SystemsAssociate Professor, School of Public Health and Health Systems, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, CanadaBackground: There is an increasing number of female refugees entering Canada with mental health service needs. The aim of this paper is to identify social and structural factors that influence Canadian refugee women’s use (or lack thereof) of mental health care services. Methods: This review follows Rosella Ferrari’s Narrative Review Framework. The PRISMA statement was used for the search strategy. A total of 430 articles were retrieved across PubMed/Medline, Scopus, and ProQuest. A final 24 articles were used in our paper after full-text screenings. Data presented in the review were organized by themes that emerged in various papers. The final section is used to highlight the main points of this review, establish future research directions, and explain how the review as achieved the research objective. Results and Discussion: Our findings unveil the complexities of refugee status, discrimination and stigma, the social experience of gender, and previous health experiences in relation to how they influence mental health service use. Additionally, culture and cultural competency as they are regarded in health care offer insightful explanations for understanding the relationships between patient and physician which ultimately influences use of services. Finally, this paper uncovers policies and power divides between patients and doctors that impacts how mental health care is welcomed by women who are refugees. Conclusions: Data suggest that social support innovations are desirable by refugee women in Canada but that further research is required to mitigate social and structural barriers to seeking care. Practice and research recommendations are provided for agendas focused on improving mental health service use.canada; mental health; help-seeking behaviours; refugees; women.
spellingShingle Shreya Mahajan
Samantha B. Meyer
Social and structural factors that influence refugee women’s use of mental health care services in Canada: A narrative review
Journal of Health and Social Sciences
canada; mental health; help-seeking behaviours; refugees; women.
title Social and structural factors that influence refugee women’s use of mental health care services in Canada: A narrative review
title_full Social and structural factors that influence refugee women’s use of mental health care services in Canada: A narrative review
title_fullStr Social and structural factors that influence refugee women’s use of mental health care services in Canada: A narrative review
title_full_unstemmed Social and structural factors that influence refugee women’s use of mental health care services in Canada: A narrative review
title_short Social and structural factors that influence refugee women’s use of mental health care services in Canada: A narrative review
title_sort social and structural factors that influence refugee women s use of mental health care services in canada a narrative review
topic canada; mental health; help-seeking behaviours; refugees; women.
work_keys_str_mv AT shreyamahajan socialandstructuralfactorsthatinfluencerefugeewomensuseofmentalhealthcareservicesincanadaanarrativereview
AT samanthabmeyer socialandstructuralfactorsthatinfluencerefugeewomensuseofmentalhealthcareservicesincanadaanarrativereview