Resilience and Mental Health Risks among Syrian Refugees in Europe: A Cultural Perspective

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. Resilience and mental health 2469-6676.100137

Key wordscultural perspective / mental health / recovery / refugee / resilience

CountriesEurope / Syria

CategoryPublication