Exploring European response to mental healthcare need of women with insecure immigration status

The war and conflict in the Middle East resulted in a humanitarian crisis. UNHCR estimates that 65.6 million people have been forcibly displaced at the end of 2016. Over one million refugees had arrived in Europe in between 2015 – 16. Canada has resettled a record number of refugees in 2016. Refugees have higher risk of developing mental illness like anxiety, depression and Post-Traumatic-Stress-Disorder. The effects of war, family separation, displacement and long travel pose more stresses on women, including overlapping with pregnancy, childbirth and caring for children. The scope of this short-term research will be to conduct (1) Literature review of European response to insecure immigrant status women’s mental health crisis (2) A comparison of European response and policies to Canadian and (3) Documenting lessons learned for Canada. The expected outcomes are knowledge sharing and the applicable policy recommendations for Canada. I plan to prepare 2 posters and a final report/paper.

Faculty Supervisor:

Natalie Riediger

Student:

Partner:

London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Health and Related Sciences & Technology

University:

University of Manitoba

Program: