School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia.
Settlement Services International, Sydney, NSW 2131, Australia.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2019 Jul 24;16(15):2634. doi: 10.3390/ijerph16152634.
Rates of help-seeking for mental health problems are low amongst refugee communities, despite the high prevalence of PTSD reported amongst these individuals. Research suggests that the key barriers to seeking help for psychological problems include structural barriers (e.g., unstable housing), cultural barriers (e.g., mental health stigma), and barriers specific to refugees and asylum seekers (e.g., visa status). This study examined the effect of structural, cultural and refugee specific barriers on the relationship between PTSD symptom severity and intentions to seek help from professional, social, and community sources. Data was collected from 103 male refugees and asylum seekers with an Arabic-, Farsi-, or Tamil-speaking background. Participants completed measures indexing demographics, trauma exposure, PTSD symptoms, mental health stigma, and help-seeking intentions. Path analyses indicated that PTSD severity was associated with lower help-seeking intentions indirectly via mental health stigma (self-stigma for seeking help and self-stigma for PTSD) and visa security. PTSD severity was also associated with greater help-seeking intentions from community members indirectly via structural barriers. These findings are important to consider when identifying key barriers to mental health help-seeking and developing interventions designed to increase help-seeking for psychological problems, within this group.
寻求心理健康问题帮助的比例在难民群体中较低，尽管这些人中报告的 PTSD 患病率很高。研究表明，寻求心理问题帮助的主要障碍包括结构性障碍（例如，住房不稳定）、文化障碍（例如，心理健康污名）和难民和寻求庇护者特有的障碍（例如，签证身份）。本研究考察了结构性、文化和难民特定障碍对 PTSD 症状严重程度与寻求专业、社会和社区资源帮助的意图之间关系的影响。数据来自 103 名来自阿拉伯语、波斯语或泰米尔语背景的男性难民和寻求庇护者。参与者完成了人口统计学、创伤暴露、PTSD 症状、心理健康污名和寻求帮助意图的指标。路径分析表明，PTSD 严重程度通过心理健康污名（寻求帮助的自我污名和 PTSD 的自我污名）和签证安全性间接与较低的寻求帮助意图相关。PTSD 严重程度也通过结构性障碍与更多来自社区成员的寻求帮助意图间接相关。在确定心理健康帮助寻求的关键障碍并制定旨在增加该群体心理问题寻求帮助的干预措施时，这些发现很重要。
