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Health Realization Community Coping Intervention for Somali Refugee Women

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Abstract

Health Realization (HR) is a strengths-based stress and coping intervention used to promote the use of internal and external coping resources. Our three-arm comparison group trial examined the effects of a culturally adapted Somali HR intervention on coping and mental health outcomes in 65 Somali refugee women post-resettlement. Subjects participated one of three conditions: HR intervention, nutrition attention-control, and evaluation-control. The HR intervention significantly affected multiple dimensions of coping: WAYS-distancing (p = 0.038), seeking social support (p = 0.042), positive reappraisal (p = 0.001); and Refugee Appraisal and Coping Experience Scale-Internal subscale (p = 0.045). The HR intervention also demonstrated improvement in depression symptom ratings (p = 0.079). We discuss findings from the pilot, challenges encountered conducting a three-arm comparison group trial, and implications for further research involving the HR intervention with culturally diverse refugee communities.

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Funding

This research was supported in part by a grant from the NIH/NINR.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Nursing, University of Minnesota, 5-140 Weaver-Densford Hall, 308 Harvard Street SE, Minneapolis, MN, 55455, USA

    Cheryl L. Robertson, Linda Halcon, Sarah J. Hoffman, Nadifa Osman, Amin Mohamed, Eunice Areba, Kay Savik & Michelle A. Mathiason

  2. Government of Somalia, Mogadishu, Somalia

    Nadifa Osman

Authors
  1. Cheryl L. Robertson
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  2. Linda Halcon
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  3. Sarah J. Hoffman
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  4. Nadifa Osman
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  5. Amin Mohamed
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  6. Eunice Areba
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  7. Kay Savik
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  8. Michelle A. Mathiason
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Correspondence to Cheryl L. Robertson.

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Robertson, C.L., Halcon, L., Hoffman, S.J. et al. Health Realization Community Coping Intervention for Somali Refugee Women. J Immigrant Minority Health 21, 1077–1084 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-018-0804-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-018-0804-8

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