Open Collections

Ntow, Amanda Senam

University of British Columbia

Background: Race and migration place Black immigrants at the intersection of certain social determinants of health, that affect their willingness to access mental health services. It is well established that immigrants generally experience psychological stressors related to sociocultural adaptation to the host country and migration. Researchers have shown that amongst immigrants, Black people are the most underprivileged groups in Canada, and experience higher rates of discrimination. Black immigrants face additional factors associated with developing mental illness, including a history of colonization, poorer access to resources, and systemic anti-Black racism (ABR) directed at people of African descent. Subsuming the experiences of all Black people accessing mental health services under one category risks overlooking the unique needs of Black African immigrants. Although past studies highlight mental health experiences in accessing mental health services of immigrants in general, none specifically focuses on Black African immigrants’ experiences in British Columbia (BC). Research objective: To identify the current barriers and facilitators encountered by Black African immigrants in accessing mental health services in BC. Methods: Multi-methods – rapid scoping review and semi-structured in-depth interview of mental health practitioners. Results and Conclusions: The results suggest that the barriers encountered by Black African immigrants in accessing mental health services in BC outweigh the facilitators. The dominance of barriers over facilitators is indicative of the likelihood that Black African immigrants will encounter more negative than positive experiences when accessing mental health services in BC. Overall, accessibility to culturally appropriate mental health services in BC seems to be improving. However, barriers can be addressed and mental health equity achieved by training and hiring more Black mental health practitioners, prioritizing affordable preventive mental health services, and implementing equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) as well as anti-racist policies in mental health practices.

Text

2025-05-02

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/90989

Population and Public Health

University of British Columbia

UBCV

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