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Improving Immigrant Populations’ Access to Mental Health Services in Canada: A Review of Barriers and Recommendations

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Abstract

This article emerges from a scoping review of over two decades of relevant literature on immigrants’ access to mental health services in Canada. Key online databases were searched to explore the gaps and opportunities for improving access to mental health services using a review framework provided by Arksey and O’Malley (Int J Soc Res Methodol 8:19–32, 2005). Immigrants and refugees came from diverse religious and cultural backgrounds and had complex mental health-related concerns that were not currently being adequately addressed by existing services. The major barriers to the utilization of mental health services included: those related to the uptake of existing health information and services; those that were related to the process of immigrant settlement; and barriers related to availability of appropriate services. A thematic analysis of the range of recommendations that emerge from these studies for improvement of research, practice and policy is provided.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by Ministry of Health and Long Term Care, Ontario, Canada (MOHLTC Grant # 06662).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ontario Multicultural Health Applied Research Network, Faculty of Community Services, Ryerson University, 350 Victoria Street, Toronto, ON, M5B 2K3, Canada

    Mary Susan Thomson

  2. School of Social Work, Faculty of Community Services, Ryerson University, 350 Victoria Street, Toronto, ON, M5B 2K3, Canada

    Ferzana Chaze

  3. Faculty of Community Services, Ryerson University, 350 Victoria Street, Toronto, ON, M5B 2K3, Canada

    Usha George

  4. School of Nursing, Faculty of Community Services, Ryerson University, 350 Victoria Street, Toronto, ON, M5B 2K3, Canada

    Sepali Guruge

  5. 99 Gerrard Street East, SHE-690, Toronto, M5B 2K3, Canada

    Mary Susan Thomson, Ferzana Chaze & Usha George

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  1. Mary Susan Thomson
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  4. Sepali Guruge
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Correspondence to Mary Susan Thomson.

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Thomson, M.S., Chaze, F., George, U. et al. Improving Immigrant Populations’ Access to Mental Health Services in Canada: A Review of Barriers and Recommendations. J Immigrant Minority Health 17, 1895–1905 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-015-0175-3

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