Mental Health Research

Mähönen, T. & Jasinskaja-Lahti, I. (2013) ‘Acculturation expectations and experiences as predictors of ethnic migrants’ psychological well-being, Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 44(5), 786-806

The Ethnic Communities’ Council of Victoria (ECCV) consulted with community representatives from refugee and asylum seeker backgrounds to find out what facilitates and hinders mental health and wellbeing for them and their communities. ECCV wanted to better understand if and how refugees and people seeking asylum in Victoria use mental health services and what the best pathways and support options are to improve their mental health.

Commissioned by the Department of Health Gippsland Region, Victoria. The project investigated the level of access of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) communities to community based mental health services in Latrobe City, including their understanding of mental health, knowledge and use of services, identify the barriers that have led to current low levels of service usage, and propose strategies and recommendations to address these.

A person from a culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) background with a mental illness who is homeless is particularly vulnerable. The purpose of this report was to identify current research on CALD homelessness and mental illness, conduct surveys across Australia and to gain a baseline understanding of the level of homelessness of people from CALD backgrounds with mental illness in Australia.

A study which examined what is known about the mental health of immigrant and refugee communities in Australia, whether research pays adequate attention to CALD in the Australian population, and whether data collections support evidence-informed mental health policy and practice.

Alemi, Q., Weller, S.C., Montgomery, S. & James, S. (2016) Afghan Refugee Explanatory Models of Depression: Exploring Core Cultural Beliefs and Gender Variations, Medical Anthropology Quarterly

Cover, R (2016) Suicides of the Marginalised: Cultural Approaches to Suicide, Minorities and Relationality, Cultural Studies Review, Vol. 22, No.2 September 2016

Dein, S. and Bhui, K. (2013) At the crossroads of anthropology and epidemiology: Current research in cultural psychiatry in the UK, Transcultural Psychiatry, 50(6), 769-791

Gartley, T. & Due, C. (2015) ‘The interpreter is not an invisible being: a thematic analysis of the impact of interpreters in mental health service provision with refugee clients’, Australian Psychologist

George, M. (2013) ‘Sri Lankan Tamil refugee experiences: A qualitative analysis’, International Journal of Culture and Mental Health, 6(3), 170-182

Guajardo, M.G.U., Slewa-Younan, S., & Santalucia, Y. (2016) ‘Important considerations when providing mental health first aid to Iraqi refugees in Australia: a Delphi study‘, Journal of Mental Health, Volume 10:54

Kaplan, I., Stow, H.D., & Szwarc, J. (2016) ‘Responding to the Challenges of Providing Mental Health Services to Refugees: An Australian Case Report‘, Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved, Volume 27, Number 3, August 2016

Khawaja, N., Ramirez, E., and Prasad-Ildes, R. (2013) ‘Building resilience in transcultural adults (BRiTA): Developing a novel preventative intervention’, Advances in Mental Health, 11(3), 302-312

Kira I.A., Lewandowski L., Ashby J.S., & Omidy J.Z. (2015) ‘Development and Piloting the MMMM Ecological Interactive Open Systems Model: A prospective One-Year Treatment Outcome of Children of Tortured Refugees‘, Psych, Vol. 6, No. 10, pp. 1277-1296

Kuowei Tay A., Rees S., Chen J., Kareth M., & Silove D. (2015) ‘Pathways involving traumatic losses, worry about family, adult separation anxiety and posttraumatic stress symptoms amongst refugees from West Papua‘, Journal of Anxiety Disorders

Liddell B., Chey T., Silove D., Phan,T., Giao, N., & Steel, Z. (2013) Patterns of risk for anxiety-depression amongst Vietnamese-immigrants: A comparison with source and host populations. BMC Psychiatry, 13(1), 329. Lin, S. (2013). Beliefs about causes, symptoms, and stigma associated with severe mental illness among ‘highly acculturated’ Chinese-American patients. International Journal of Social Psychiatry, 59, 745-751

Mölsäab, M. Kuittinenc, S. Tiilikainend, M. Honkasaloef, M. & Punamäkic, R. (2016) ‘Mental health among older refugees: the role of trauma, discrimination, and religiousness’, Aging & Mental Health

Ngai, A., Bozza, A., Zhang, H., Chen, C., and Bennett, P. (2014) ‘Transition between cultures? Beliefs and attitudes of British and Chinese young adults living in China and the UK towards mental health disorders‘, International Journal of Culture and Mental Health, 7(1), 28-42

Procter, N., De Leo, D. and Newman, L. (2013) Suicide and self-harm prevention for people in immigration detention, Medical Journal of Australia, 199(11), 730-732

Sunderland N., Istvandity L., Lakhani A., Lenette C., Procopis B., & Caballero P. (2015) ‘They [do more than] Interrupt us from Sadness: Exploring the impact of participatory music making on social determinants of health and wellbeing for refugees in Australia’, Health, Culture and Society, Volume 8, No.1

Triggs, G. (2013) Mental health and immigration detention, Medical Journal of Australia, 199(11), 721-722

Valibhoy, M.C., kaplan, I., Szwarc, J. (2016) ‘”It comes down to just how human someone can be”: A qualitative study with young people from refugee backgrounds about their experiences of Australian mental health services’, Transcultural Psychiatry

Vitale, A. & Ryde, J. (2016) ‘Promoting male refugees’ mental health after they have been granted leave to remain (refugee status)’, International Journal of Mental Health Promotion, Vol 18:2, pp 106-125

Wintrob, R. (2013) Reflections on current research and future challenges in cultural psychiatry, Transcultural Psychiatry, 50(6), 765-768

Yaser, A. Slewa-Younan, S. Smith, C.A. Olson, R.E. Uribe Guajardo, M.G. & Mond, J. (2016) ‘Beliefs and knowledge about post-traumatic stress disorder amongst resettled Afghan refugees in Australia’, International Journal of Mental Health Systems, Vol 10: 31

Zubaran, C., Foresti, K. & de Moore, G. (2013) Aborigines, colonizers and newcomers: The landscape of transcultural psychiatry research in Australia, Transcultural Psychiatry, 50(6), 876-899

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