Linguistic and cultural barriers to access and utilization of mental health care for Farsi-speaking newcomers in Quebec

Abstract

Purpose In light of the growing number of refugees and immigrants in Canada, this paper aims to identify barriers to mental health services for newcomer immigrants and refugees in Quebec and to examine how mental health services can be improved for these populations. Design/methodology/approach In this qualitative study, semi-structured individual interviews with Farsi-speaking health professionals and focus group interviews with participants from community organizations in Quebec were conducted. Findings Participants, both health-care professionals and community members, reported that mental health services are not readily accessible to Farsi-speaking immigrants and refugees. Structural barriers, language barriers, cultural safety and stigma were identified as obstacles to accessing care. Recommended strategies for improving access to mental health care are discussed. Originality/value Multiple studies have found that language and cultural barriers are associated with health inequalities and under-utilization of mental health services among linguistic and ethnic minorities. However, there are limited data on many groups and contexts, and a need to better understand how language barriers affect health outcomes, service utilization, patient satisfaction or overall costs to the health system or to society. In response to this gap, the present study explores how access to mental health services for Farsi-speaking newcomers may be limited by structural and linguistic barriers and cultural differences and as well as to identify strategies that can reduce the identified barriers.

A Mixed-Methods Investigation of Facilitators to Accessing and Utilising Mental Health Services amongst Sri Lankan Australians

“…The qualitative findings noted that practitioners’ lack of awareness of premigration contexts, such as the socio-political and historical context of Sri Lanka, including cultural pressures and experiences of cumulative trauma, and postmigration experiences, such as challenges of having a bicultural identity, led to concerns that their problems would not be understood or taken seriously by practitioners. Therefore, in this context, cultural safety requires cultural understanding, because clients cannot feel safe accessing services if they do not feel their cultures, as well as intersectional and bicultural identities, are understood and respected [ 18 ].…”

“…Participants noted that a community-based approach that utilised social media and Sri Lankan radio and television to have discussions that demystified and normalised experiencing periods of mental illness may assist in fostering positive attitudes towards mental health. Raising awareness about mental health issues and how to navigate mental health services through online resources, printed resources and community-based seminars and workshops has also been a suggested strategy for improving access to mental health care for Farsi-speaking immigrants in Quebec [ 18 ].…”

“…Second, improving mental health service provision by providing culturally safe and responsive services and access to bicultural clinicians could be another factor that would improve the accessibility of mental health services for the Sri Lankan Australian community. Therefore, when services become community-based, culturally safe, and trustworthy, more migrants may access care before their symptoms become severe and their problems affect their social functioning [ 18 ].…”

Natural Language Processing for Mental Disorders: An Overview

“…This gap points to the existence of linguistic inequality in the development of NLP approaches to mental disorders, which could be somewhat rectified (at the very least) by the organisation of shared tasks using non-English social media data. This linguistic coverage gap in the publicly available datasets together with the known difficulties those with a linguistic and/or cultural minority background encounter to access mental healthcare (Kisely, 2020;Mianji et al, 2020) make it clear that linguistic inequalities in mental healthcare are a major source of concern.…”