Desiring support on a winding road with challenging intersections: Social and professional support for sexual minority forced migrant men.
Tommy Carlsson, Rummage Isaac, Ronah Ainembabazi and 3 others
PMID 38808511WHAT IT FOUND
Sexual minority migrant men in Sweden said health services were hard to reach because of language, cost, unfamiliar systems and fear about disclosure.
They wanted friendly, affirming clinicians and interpreter choices that protected privacy.
Key findings
01Social support from friends, partners and peers included emotional, practical and informational help, but some participants stopped attending peer activities after negative comments.
02Barriers such as unfamiliar health systems, language, cost and misinformation about eligibility led some participants to avoid care they needed.
03Participants wanted clinicians who were friendly, open-minded, understanding, affirming and empathetic, and telephone interpretation was seen as a way to stay more anonymous.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The sample was 15 men, recruited through convenience, purposive and snowball sampling, so participants may have had existing social connections and the exact snowball number was unknown. The study included only cisgender men and participants from Africa and Asia, so it may not capture experiences of women, transgender or non-binary people, older migrants, or people from other regions. All interviews were conducted in English without interpreters, although participants described language as a barrier to health services. The final findings were not returned to participants, and saturation was not the goal. The interviewers were Swedish-born nurse-midwives without lived experience of forced migration, and their backgrounds may have influenced the data. The Swedish health system, non-governmental organisation structure and rights context may not transfer to other countries.
Declared interests
The study was funded by the Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare (Forte), grant GD-2021/0028. The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read these themes as proof that affirming communication, telephone interpreting, social support or screening for partner violence improves care. The study reported experiences from 15 men and did not test any service change or compare outcomes.