Zivot Chloe, Dewey Cate, Brockington Meghan, Nwebube Chioma, Asfour Ghaid, Vattikonda Natasha, Bell Debbie, Srinivasan Sharada, Little Matthew
Department of Population Medicine, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, Canada.
The Mothers Matter Centre, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
AIMS Public Health. 2022 Jun 13;9(3):521-541. doi: 10.3934/publichealth.2022036. eCollection 2022.
In order to provide meaningful and effective support to refugees in Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as during post-pandemic recovery efforts, it is critical to explore the experiences of refugee mothers and families during the pandemic, and to identify sources of resilience that can be leveraged to promote individual and household wellbeing. From November 2020 to June 2021, we conducted in-depth interviews with mothers from refugee backgrounds (n = 28) who resettled in Calgary, Alberta and are currently participating in the Multicultural Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters (HIPPY) program. Interviews were conducted virtually using Microsoft Teams; we sought to better understand the pathways and barriers to wellbeing experienced by refugee mothers during the pandemic. The results indicate that the refugee mothers and families in our study experienced widespread disruptions to education and employment and increased motherhood burden, contributing to diminished wellbeing. Mental health was further impacted by heightened levels of worry, stress and social isolation, as well as intense fear pertaining to the spread of SARS-CoV-2. Some mothers reported experiencing barriers to accessing healthcare services and reliable health information during the pandemic. In the face of these challenges, the mothers demonstrated great resilience and identified tangible individual, household and extra-household factors and resources that supported them in coping with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, our findings suggest that participation in HIPPY played a significant role in fostering the resilience of the participating mothers and families during the pandemic, speaking to the potential of home visiting intervention models in mitigating household hardship during current and future public health crises.
为了在新冠疫情期间以及疫情后的恢复工作中，为加拿大的难民提供有意义且有效的支持，探索难民母亲及其家庭在疫情期间的经历，并找出可用于促进个人和家庭福祉的恢复力来源至关重要。2020年11月至2021年6月，我们对来自难民背景的母亲（n = 28）进行了深入访谈，这些母亲在艾伯塔省卡尔加里重新定居，目前正在参加针对学龄前儿童家长的多元文化居家指导（HIPPY）项目。访谈通过微软团队以线上方式进行；我们试图更好地了解难民母亲在疫情期间所经历的幸福之路和障碍。结果表明，我们研究中的难民母亲及其家庭在教育和就业方面经历了广泛的干扰，母亲的负担加重，导致幸福感下降。心理健康进一步受到担忧、压力和社会隔离加剧的影响，以及对SARS-CoV-2传播的强烈恐惧。一些母亲报告说，在疫情期间获取医疗服务和可靠健康信息存在障碍。面对这些挑战，这些母亲展现出了极大的恢复力，并确定了切实的个人、家庭和家庭外因素及资源，这些因素和资源支持她们应对新冠疫情的影响。此外，我们的研究结果表明，参与HIPPY项目在疫情期间增强参与项目的母亲及其家庭的恢复力方面发挥了重要作用，这表明家访干预模式在缓解当前及未来公共卫生危机期间家庭困境方面具有潜力。
