Abstract:
Adolescents comprise a significant portion of refugees, yet little is known about the particular challenges this group faces in resettlement, or their needs for mental health service provision. Fifty three adolescents from refugee backgrounds were recruited to participate in focus group discussions and structured interviews to investigate stressors experienced throughout the pre-migration, transit and post-migration stages, their coping strategies, and experiences with and attitudes to mental health services. In addition, focus groups were also completed with 20 mental health service providers. A thematic analysis revealed issues of dealing with loss, worry about family left behind, discrimination, money worries, difficulties with learning a new language, struggles to make friends, adjusting to the new culture and school, and family conflict. Adolescents regarded coping with such stressors as being something to be done privately – rather than through talk with others - but described a range of other coping mechanisms they use. Barriers to accessing mental health services included differences in cultural understandings of their issues, challenges associated with use of interpreters , fear of stigma, and fear of privacy not being maintained. Service providers identified refugee adolescents’ mental health difficulties arising from trauma and its lingering impact, clash of cultures, loss, missing relationships, lack of meaningful activities, lack of financial resource, different rates of adaptation to parents, parent’s lack of familiarity with the parent role, family health and functioning, parents’ expectations and family’s attitude towards mental health services. Service providers further identified language difficulties and different cultural understandings impacted on the wide range of intervention they provided. Adolescents and service providers identified a range of options for improving service delivery to refugee adolescents. Implications of this research are presented for resettlement programmes and mental health care.