Social Resilience and Mental Health Among Eritrean Asylum-Seekers in Switzerland

Datos Bibliográficos

ID4677243
AutoresSabra Melamed (0000-0001-7018-9492, Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Basel, Switzerland), Afona Chernet (0000-0002-8664-299X, Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Basel, Switzerland), Niklaus Daniel Labhardt (0000-0003-3599-1791, Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute), Nicole Probst-Hensch (0000-0001-8561-5976, Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Basel, Switzerland), Constanze Pfeiffer (0000-0002-9487-2867, Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Basel, Switzerland, autor de correspondencia)
Año2019
Volumen29
Número2
Páginas222-236
Fecha de publicación2019-01-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaQualitative Health Research (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1049-7323 • E-ISSN: 1552-7557
EditorialSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/1049732318800004
PMID30222038
OpenAlexW2890674341
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas17
Referencias citadas33

Eritreans comprise the largest group of asylum-seekers in Switzerland. Gaining recognized refugee status can take up to 36 months, during which time asylum-seekers live in a state of legal limbo, intensifying threats to their well-being. Resilience and mental health among this population is poorly understood. We interviewed 10 asylum-seekers residing in Switzerland using qualitative, in-depth interviews. Data were analyzed using the Framework Method. Results indicated that mental health was understood as a binary state rather than a continuum and that trusted friends and family were responsible for recognizing and attempting to treat mental health problems. Pathways to care were potentially interrupted for asylum-seekers. Capital building, considered through the lens of social resilience, consisted of language learning, establishing of new individual- and community-level social networks, and proactive symbolic capital building through volunteering. We contextualize the asylum-seekers' experience into a resilience framework and offer practical recommendations for improving mental health care access

Criminology · Environmental health · Mental health · Political science · Population · Psychiatry · Psychological resilience · Qualitative research · Refugee · Social capital · Social science · Sociology · Symbolic capital · Education and experiences of immigrants and refugees · Law · Medicine · Migration, Health and Trauma · Migration, Refugees, and Integration · Psychology · Social Psychology