Barriers to accessing mental health services in Somali-Australian women: a qualitative study.
Mulki Said, Gayelene Boardman, Susan Kidd
PMID 33715289WHAT IT FOUND
Somali-Australian women described four barriers to mental health help-seeking: faith could make illness seem a test from God, shame hid diagnoses, mistrust of Australian clinicians, and families denied illness or stopped medication.
These are experiences, not evidence of an intervention.
Key findings
01The women identified four barriers to help-seeking: influence of faith, impact of stigma, mistrust of Australian healthcare systems, and denial of mental illness.
02Islamic beliefs could make mental illness seem a test from God, and faith was seen as a barrier when the person was not devout.
03Mistrust of Australian health professionals was linked to reluctance to follow prescribed treatment, and parents sometimes discouraged medication because they feared it would make their child crazy.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The authors state the findings are limited to these participants and cannot be generalised. The study included only women aged 18 to 34 who could speak conversational English and were not receiving treatment for an acute mental illness. Recruitment was difficult and used snowball sampling.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read these themes as proof that Somali-Australian women avoid treatment because of faith. The study reports perceptions of 31 mainly young women, and some said medical help can be combined with prayer and traditional remedies.