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Mental health literacy of resettled Iraqi refugees in Australia: Knowledge about posttraumatic stress disorder and beliefs about helpfulness of interventions

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Background Resettled 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.Conclusions These 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.
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... Four studies were conducted in Arab countries: two in Saudi Arabia, one in Oman, and one in Lebanon (Almanasef, 2021;Alshehri et al., 2021;Elsheshtawy et al., 2020;Naal et al., 2020). Five were conducted in non-Arab countries: four in Australia and one in Israel (Khatib & Abo-Rass, 2022;Krstanoska-Blazeska et al., 2021;May et al., 2014;Slewa-Younan et al., 2014, 2020. All were published during the last decade: two in 2014, three in 2020, and four in 2021. ...
... Five studies were conducted among university students (Almanasef, 2021;Alshehri et al., 2021;Elsheshtawy et al., 2020; Khatib & Abo-Rass, 2022; Naal et al., 2020); two among religious and community leaders (with a majority in the two samples having higher education; Krstanoska-Blazeska et al., 2021;Slewa-Younan et al., 2020); and two among refugees in Australia (May et al., 2014;Slewa-Younan et al., 2014; with a mean of 10 years of education and 42% of the sample with higher education, respectively). ...
... In the studies conducted among refugees (May et al., 2014;Slewa-Younan et al., 2014), the participants indicated more supernatural and religious treatments and reported seeing a psychiatrist and reading the Koran or Bible as the most effective intervention. ...
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... African refugees might prefer cultural practices which include seeking support from community religious leaders and elders who are traditionally "regarded as people of wisdom, experience and high standing" (Drummond et al., 2011, p. 219). Iraqi refugees in Australia, although also mentioning help from psychiatrists, referred to their religion as helpful for their post-traumatic stress disorder (Slewa-Younan et al., 2014). Similarly, West Indian migrants named religious help as preferable to psychiatric medication (Whitley et al., 2006). ...
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... Limited use of vignettes with resettled refugees has been documented to date with Iraqi refugees in Australia (Slewa-Younan et al., 2014), and with Afghan refugees resettled in Australia (Yaser et al., 2016). Both studies concluded that there was a need to understand the cultural aspects of mental health and increase mental health literacy among refugees. ...
... In fact, 92% of participants strongly agreed with one or more biopsychosocial beliefs, whereas spiritual beliefs were strongly endorsed by only 24% of participants on average. This is consistent with earlier findings indicating that while some refugees hold spiritual beliefs, the majority of these beliefs are not a predominant explanation for mental health symptoms (Grupp et al., 2018;May et al., 2014;Slewa-Younan et al., 2014). This has previously also been observed among refugees from Arab countries residing in Germany (Lechner-Meichsner and Comtesse, 2022). ...
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... [41][42][43][44],) and Arab immigrant minorities living in Western countries (e.g. [45][46][47],) have been found to highly endorse supernatural/religious causal attributions, and thereby tend to prefer seeking help from traditional healers and religious authorities when experiencing mental health problems. In Arab Muslim societies, mental illness is framed and explained through religious beliefs [10]. ...
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... It includes the ability to recognize mental illness, knowing how to collect mental health information; knowledge about risk factors and causes, and about self-treatments and professional help available (Jorm, 2012). There is also evidence that different levels of knowledge and beliefs about the nature and management of mental health problems may act as barriers to help-seeking behavior in e.g., Arabicspeaking groups (Slewa-Younan et al., 2014). Following this, some MHL researchers argue that also stigma, positive mental health, and help-seeking efficacy should be added to the MHL definition (Kutcher et al., 2019;Spiker and Hammer, 2019). ...
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