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Resilience and Mental Health Risks among Syrian Refugees in Europe: A Cultural Perspective
Nazlı Balkır Neftçi, PhD, 2017
Addressing the mental health issues and cultural features of
resilience and recovery among Syrian refugee population is
a key challenge and a great necessity for mental health care
service providers in demographically changing context. Given
that the mental distress is framed in terms of disruption in
social relationships or in the spiritual realm in most of the
Middle Eastern refugees, these individuals usually prefer to seek
support of friends or family or implement religious practices
such as praying, in order to promote their adaptation in the face
of adversity. Culture influences not only one’s understanding
of mental distress and strategies to adapt such distressing
experiences, but also shapes attitudes towards and compliance
to treatment. […] While working with refugee
patients, it has been shown to be crucial to remain open to
multiple explanatory models including biomedical, psychological,
religious and traditional ones to enhance communication with
the refugee patients. This may refer to the fact that while
clinicians provide psychological treatment, the patients may
maintain their beliefs regarding what they believe/practice is also
effective for their treatment.
Updated February 14, 2022.
