Poverty may represent a transient and inevitable part of the resettlement process for new immigrant families. For long-stay immigrant and receiving-society families, however, poverty probably is not part of an unfolding process; instead, it is the nadir of a cycle of disadvantage.

Whole population studies on intimate partner violence (IPV) have given contradictory information about prevalence and risk factors, especially concerning gender. The authors examined the 1999 Canadian General Social Survey data for gender patterns of physical, sexual, emotional, or financial IPV from a current or ex-partner. More women (8.6%) than men (7.0%, p = .001) reported partner physical abuse in general, physical IPV causing physical injury (p < .0001), sexual abuse (1.7% vs. 0.2%, p < .0001), and financial abuse (4.1% vs. 1.6%, p < .0001). There were no gender differences for partner emotional abuse. Significant risk factors after multivariate modeling for physical/sexual IPV were younger age, being divorced/separated or single, having children in the household, and poor self-rated physical health. These findings from a large, randomly generated data set further refine our understanding of the risk profile for IPV in the developed world.

The purpose of this study was to determine the occurrence of and risk factors for depressive disorder in a random sample of 342 Ethiopian immigrants and refugees in Toronto. The Composite International Diagnostic Interview questionnaire was used to measure depression. The results suggested a lifetime prevalence of depression among Ethiopian immigrants and refugees of 9.8%, which was slightly higher than the lifetime prevalence rate in the Ontario population (7.3%). However, the rate among Ethiopian immigrants and refugees was approximately three times higher than the rate estimated for Southern Ethiopia (3.2%). The data confirmed the significance of known risk factors for depression in immigrants, including younger age, experiences of premigration trauma, refugee camp internment, and postmigration stressful events. The implication of the overall finding is that there is a need to develop mental health intervention programs, particularly for people who have experienced premigration trauma, refugee camp internment, and postmigration stresses.

The purpose of this study was to examine the mental health service utilization patterns of Ethiopians in Toronto. A cross-sectional epidemiological survey of 342 randomly selected adults was conducted, based on a conceptual model of healthcare utilization suggested by Anderson and Newman. The results suggested that 5% of the respondents sought mental health services from healthcare professionals and 8% consulted nonhealthcare professionals. Although Ethiopians' utilization rate of mental health services did not greatly differ from the rates of the general population of Ontario (6%), only a small proportion (12.5%) of Ethiopians with mental disorders used services from healthcare professionals, mostly family physicians. The data also suggested that Ethiopians were more likely to consult traditional healers than healthcare professionals for mental health problems (18.8% vs. 12.5%). In multivariate logistic regression analyses, while the number of somatic symptoms experienced was positively associated with increased mental healthcare utilization (OR = 1.515, p < 0.05), having a mental disorder was associated with decreased mental healthcare utilization (OR = 0.784, p < 0.01). Our findings have important implications for mental health services. On the one hand, the findings suggest that somatic symptoms could lead to increased use of mental health services, particularly family physicians' services. On the other hand, the data suggested that although the mental healthcare needs of Ethiopians are high, they use fewer mental health services from healthcare professionals. It would seem that family physicians could play important role in identifying and treating Ethiopian clients with somatic symptoms, as these symptoms may reflect mental disorder.

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