Abstract
Background: Many young migrants and their parents are reluctant to seek help for mental health and substance use problems. Help-seeking delays can result in longer duration of untreated problems and poorer outcomes. In this study, we aimed to identify the help-seeking barriers and facilitators for anxiety, depression and alcohol and drug use problems in young people from recently established sub-Saharan African migrant communities. Methods: A qualitative study, incorporating individual, in-depth interviews and focus group discussions, was undertaken in Melbourne, Australia. Twenty-eight young sub-Saharan African migrants participated in the individual interviews, and 41 sub-Saharan African-born parents and key community leaders participated in 4 focus groups. All participants were aged 16 years or over. A thematic analysis of the data was undertaken. Results: Themes and related sub-themes were abstracted from the data, reflecting the young people's, parents' and key community leaders' beliefs about barriers and facilitators to help-seeking for mental health and substance use problems. Four help-seeking barriers were identified: stigma of mental illness, lack of mental health literacy in parents and young people, lack of cultural competency of formal help sources, and financial costs deterring access. Five help-seeking facilitators were abstracted: being open with friends and family, strong community support systems, trustworthiness and confidentiality of help-sources, perceived expertise of formal help-sources, increasing young people's and parents' mental health literacy. Conclusion: Programs that identify and build on help-seeking facilitators while addressing help-seeking barriers are needed to address mental health issues among young sub-Saharan African migrants. Strategies to address help seeking barriers should consider counteracting stigma and increasing mental health literacy in sub-Saharan African communities, increasing health providers' cultural competency and perceived trustworthiness, and addressing financial barriers to accessing services.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 275 |
| Number of pages | 10 |
| Journal | BMC Psychiatry |
| Volume | 16 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| Publication status | Published - 2 Aug 2016 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2016 The Author(s).
Open Access - Access Right Statement
© 2016 The Author(s). Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.Keywords
- Africans
- Australia
- immigrants
- mental health
- substance abuse
- youth
