Mental Health Status and Service Assessment for Adult Syrian Refugees Resettled in Metropolitan Atlanta: A Cross-Sectional Survey

Abstract

Because little is known about the mental health status of Syrian refugees in the United States, we conducted a survey among a convenience sample of those resettled in Atlanta between March 2011 and 2017. Though home visits, we delivered a questionnaire including standardized instruments (HSCL25 and PTSD-8) to assess symptoms of anxiety, depression and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. We found high rates of anxiety (60%), depression (44%) and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (84%) symptoms; however, only 20% of participants had seen a mental health professional. Reported reasons for not seeking professional help were lack of transportation and access to information. Findings of this survey indicate the high burden of mental health symptoms and the need for services to the study population. A longitudinal study with a larger sample size would improve the understanding of mental health needs and resilience factors of Syrian refugees resettled in the US.

The prevalence and risk factors for mental distress among Syrian refugees in Germany: a register-based follow-up study

“…The 1.5 year follow-up revealed that mental distress does not change significantly over time, and overall remains quite high in comparison to the general population in Germany [42][43][44]. However, compared to other studies with Syrian refugees, the observed prevalence rates of depression, PTSD and anxiety disorder were much lower [11,16]. Experienced traumatic events as well as post-migration factors, such as discrimination or further validity of residence permission were both identified as relevant risk factors for mental disorders.…”

“…Besides these traumatic experiences, refugees are also confronted with post-migration stressors in their host countries, such as loss of their social lives, discrimination, poor integration, lack of relevant language and cultural skills, barriers to employment and uncertainty about their asylum status [4,[7][8][9][10]. In a study conducted in the U.S. among Syrian refugees the top three post-migration challenges were identified as being the language barrier, worries about family members back home and inability to pay living expenses [11].…”

“…In addition to the incidence of one of these disorders alone, studies have revealed a frequent co-occurrence of these diseases in refugee populations [9,14,15]. Studies tackling populations of Syrian refugees in different receiving countries vary and often end up with heterogeneous results in prevalence rates of depression (34.7-65%) [11,[16][17][18][19][20][21][22], PTSD (19.6-84%) [4,6,11,16,19,20,22,23], and unspecified anxiety disorder (36.1-60%) [11,16,19,22]. This can mainly be explained due to clinical and methodological factors, e.g.…”

Beliefs, perceptions, and behaviors impacting healthcare utilization of Syrian refugee children

“…Psychological stressors were discussed equally among male and female participants. These findings underscore the importance of providers’ awareness of the parental stressors that affect their ability to manage their children’s health and seek help for their children’s illnesses [ 9 , 13 , 31 ]. Beyond the individual provider, systems need to recognize, identify, and act upon these stressors during care encounters.…”

An Overview of the Health Profile of Syrian Refugees Arriving in Kentucky from 2012-2017

“…Syrian refugees in Kentucky have the added stress of resettlement in a new country. Syrians and Syrian refugees have a wide range of mental health problems including but not limited to post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, depression, exacerbation of pre-existing mental health disorders, and experiencing violence, and tremendous loss [39,38,40,41,42]. [38].…”