Professional mental health support seeking in Women of Refugee Background resettled in Australia: An exploratory study of facilitators and barriers

Hawkes, Clare; Norris, Kimberley; Joyce, Janine; Paton, Douglas

doi:10.1111/hsc.13370

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 53 publications

(63 reference statements)

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“…Health and social care needs are high across refugee-background communities (Ross Perfetti et al ., 2019 ; Rogers et al , 2020 ; Shrestha-Ranjit et al , 2020 ; Hawkes et al , 2021 ). In Australia, levels of participation in physical activity are lower within refugee-background communities when compared to the broader population ( Caperchione et al , 2009 ; Caperchione et al , 2011 ; Russell et al ., 2013 ; Ball et al , 2015 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring the gap between refugee-background communities’ needs and existing community-based physical activity programs in Australia

Hawkins

Malatzky

Wilson

et al. 2023

Health Promotion International

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Summary Physical activity programs run by local government, public health and not-for-profit sectors are a key public health strategy for improving rates of physical activity within local communities. However, these programs are underutilized. This is especially the case among members of refugee-background communities whose participation could have far-ranging and multilevel benefits. To explore how greater engagement among refugee-background communities with these programs could be fostered in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, a qualitative study was undertaken from the perspectives of both community-based physical activity program providers and agencies involved in delivering services to refugee-background communities. This study involved a series of semi-structured interviews with a purposive sample of personnel from agencies that work with individuals and families from refugee-background communities and organizations that provide low-cost or no-cost physical activity programs and initiatives. Reflexive thematic analysis was used to interpret meaning from these data. Three themes relating to how participation in community-based physical activity programs could be improved among refugee-background communities were identified: improving cultural safety through intersectoral collaboration; confronting constraints imposed by the broader public health policy environment; and building capacity and empowering the community to diversify the sector. The findings highlight the importance of localized, deep-level intersectoral collaborations in bridging the gap between the health and social care needs of refugee-background communities and existing physical activity programs. However, a range of systems-produced barriers to the creation of such collaborations must be addressed to enable local actors to help mitigate and address the systemic exclusion of marginalized populations from participation in broader society.

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