GCRF Protracted Displacement project

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“Let’s manage the stressor today” exploring the mental health response to forced migrants in Johannesburg, South Africa

Research themes

Abstract

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Purpose

In South Africa, the majority of the population struggles to access care and support for mental health challenges. Drawing on challenges faced by asylum seekers and refugees in the urban margins of Johannesburg, this paper aims to explore the relationship between migration and mental health through a lens of heightened vulnerability, precarious urban spaces and unmet basic needs.
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Design/methodology/approach

Remote interviews were conducted with respondents working in the mental health-care sector (public and private) and with migrant communities in Johannesburg. Respondents were identified via purposive sampling and interviews were conducted in English. Key findings were identified using thematic analysis.
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Findings

Effective responses to asylum seekers and refugees facing mental health challenges are based on an understanding of context, of crisis and of the need to meet basic needs such as paying rent, finding employment and providing for families. These “daily stressors” not only compound “extreme traumatisation” but are a form of trauma in and of itself.
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Originality/value

This paper shows how alternative responses determined by an understanding of context, of crisis and of the need to meet basic needs provide critical and potentially far-reaching interventions. Locating trauma in the unmet needs, precarious urban spaces and marginalisation opens up space to further question the ways that migration and mental health shape and reshape one another.
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Authors:
Rebecca Walker, Jo Vearey
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The full article published in the International Journal of Migration, Health and Social Care is available here

 

Photo credit: Madoda Mkhobeni

Améliorer les soins de santé à l'intersection du genre et des déplacements prolongés parmi les réfugiés et déplacés internes somaliens et congolais

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© 2020 All rights reserved. Prof Laura Jeffery | The University of Edinburgh

Created by the SSPS Communications & Engagement team

This project is publicly-funded academic research, supported by a grant (reference number ES/T004479/1) from the UK Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) via the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) Development-based approaches to Protracted Displacement scheme.

The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in Scotland, with registration number SC005336, VAT Registration Number GB 592 9507 00, and is acknowledged by the UK authorities as a “Recognised body” which has been granted degree awarding powers.

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