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Applying integrated knowledge translation to address mental health among young immigrant and refugee men in Canada

University of British Columbia

Background: The mental health of young immigrant and refugee men has drawn much recent attention worldwide. Increased awareness regarding depression and suicide among men has intersected with pressing dialogues around how to best address the health needs of immigrant and refugee populations. Despite this attention, integrated knowledge translation (iKT) research in the field of mental health has yet to engage this group and virtually no studies have focused on their mental health experiences. The purpose of this research was to examine mental health and distress from the perspectives of immigrant and refugee young men living in Greater Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Methods: An iKT approach was applied to integrate the perspectives of (1) research collaborators, who were six immigrant and refugee young men, and (2) an advisory group, comprised of service providers and program leaders into the study design and mobilization of the study findings. Narrative analysis methods, informed by the analytical lenses of social context and critical masculinities, were used to collect and examine the data from individual and group interviews with thirty-three immigrant and refugee young men (ages 15-22 years). Participatory video methods were used to facilitate the co-creation of a film with the collaborators based on qualitative data from the research interviews. A reflexive analysis was used to examine ethnographic field notes documenting the iKT design and the participatory video methods. Findings: The results reveal that (1) the participants’ distress-related experiences were shaped in part by masculine discourses; (2) experiences of second-class citizenship, in the context of their everyday life, influenced how young men perceived their mental health; and (3) iKT and participatory video methods can lead to new insights about power and representation. Conclusions: This dissertation contributes to the literature on immigrant and refugee youth mental health and young men’s experiences of distress. It provides insights to guide future iKT and participatory video research. The findings can inform equity-oriented practice, policy, and future research to support the mental health of immigrant and refugee young men in Canada.

Text

2018-07-04

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/66408

Nursing

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/