Social support needs of Sudanese and Zimbabwean refugee new parents in Canada

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine support needs of African refugee new parents in Canada, and identifies support preferences that may enhance the mental health of refugee parents and children. Design/methodology/approach In all, 72 refugee new parents from Zimbabwe (n=36) and Sudan (n=36) participated in individual interviews. All had a child aged four months to five years born in Canada. Refugee new parents completed standardized measures on social support resources and support seeking as a coping strategy. Four group interviews (n=30) with refugee new parents were subsequently conducted. In addition, two group interviews (n=30) were held with service providers and policy influencers. Findings Separated from their traditional family and cultural supports, refugee new parents reported isolation and loneliness. They lacked support during pregnancy, birth, and postpartum and had limited interactions with people from similar cultural backgrounds. Refugees required support to access services and overcome barriers such as language, complex systems, and limited financial resources. Support preferences included emotional and information support from peers from their cultural community and culturally sensitive service providers. Research limitations/implications Psychometric evaluation of the quantitative measures with the two specific populations included in this study had not been conducted, although these measures have been used with ethnically diverse populations by other researchers. Practical implications The study findings can inform culturally appropriate health professional practice, program and policy development. Originality/value The study bridges gaps in research examining support needs and support intervention preferences of African refugee new parents.

Determinants of psychiatric disorders in children refugees in Turkey’s Yazidi refugee camp

“…All studies focusing on evaluating psychological problems ongoing for decades after settling in a new environment underline the risks at various levels, deriving from the phases of settling in a new environment. Based on these studies, we reach to the conclusion that [13] location where they settle in after experiencing horrifying incidents has great importance for refugees. Psychologically, an individual's roots and commitment to ideological responsibilities might also play a protective role [14].…”

Transnationalism and care of migrant families during pregnancy, postpartum and early-childhood: an integrative review

“…Sixteen papers (23% of the literature) focused on care, an intervention or a program during early-childhood (see Tables 3 and 4). These included: studies that examined migrant mothers' general experiences of accessing primary healthcare [52,62,79] or early-childhood programs [105] for their children; one study that explored nurses' experiences in providing primary healthcare to refugee families with a child aged 0 to 6 years [108]; papers that reported on parents and care-providers' perspectives of peer support group interventions meant to enhance parenting skills, promote child development and reduce isolation among immigrant mothers [22] and refugee mothers/parents [80,[101][102][103]; and literature that described and/or evaluated specialized earlyeducation programs for migrant and refugee families, or that investigated the experiences of educators in providing these services [60,73,76,90,98,99].…”

“… Stewart 2015 [ 101 ] To evaluate a social support intervention (support groups consisting of like-ethnic and like-gender peers) for refugee new parents Canada Psychosocial intervention for refugee parents with young children (4 months to 5 years) Mixed-methods (pre-test post-test design and qualitative descriptive) 38 mothers and 47 fathers 21 peer and professional mentors Sudan, Zimbabwe LOT: < 5 years Interviews and questionnaires (social support, loneliness and isolation, coping, parenting stress) Refugee, asylum seeker 61. Stewart 2017 [ 102 ] To examine support needs of African refugee new parents in Canada to guide development of a tailored support intervention Canada Psychosocial intervention for refugee parents with young children (4 months to 5 years) Mixed-methods (qualitative descriptive and questionnaires) 29 fathers and 43 mothers (additional parents also participated in the group interviews but unclear how many), and 15 service-providers and 15 policy-influences/makers Zimbabwe, Sudan LOT: < 5 years Refugee, asylum seeker Individual and group interviews and questionnaires (social support, coping) 62. Stewart 2018 [ 103 ] To develop and test an accessible and culturally appropriate social support intervention designed to meet the support needs and preferences identified by African refugee parents of young children Canada Social support intervention for refugee parents with young children (4 months to 5 years) Qualitative descriptive 47 fathers and 38 mothers Sudan, Zimbabwe Individual and group interviews LOT: < 5 years Refugee 63.…”

“…For the mixed-methods studies, one study provided inadequate details on the methods and was therefore deemed poor quality [ 75 ]; the other six were all good quality- there was a clear rationale for using mixed-methods, and the qualitative and quantitative components were sufficiently described and ‘mixed’ [ 60 , 88 , 97 , 100 – 102 ]. Two strengths across the research, irrespective of the design, were: 1- the inclusion of minority language migrants as participants; of the 53 studies with migrant parents, 36 accommodated those speaking a language other than the host-country language; and 2- the migrant populations were generally well-described using key indicators (i.e., country of origin, length of time, and migration status).…”

“…Other forms of transnational ties (i.e., 'ways of being') were mentioned in fewer papers. This included references to families worrying about relatives, including children who remained in the home country [54,55,59,60,67,86,105] and families staying connected via phone/ communication technologies and/or visits as a source of social and emotional support, to maintain cultural identity, and/or for assistance with childcare [21,22,31,48,49,67,69,85,90,95,96,102,105]. It also included families sending money back home [105], women seeking healthcare in their country to give birth [21], and families using transnational networks to obtain advice and health information-partly due to local care not being adapted [21,49,88,94,96,105].…”