A mixed methods systematic review of mental health self-care strategies for Arabic-speaking refugees and migrants.

Background: Self-care strategies can improve mental health and wellbeing, however, the evidence on preferred strategies among Arabic-speaking refugees and migrants is unclear. This mixed methods systematic review aimed to identify and synthesise the global research on mental health self-care strategies used by these populations.

Methods: English and Arabic language studies reporting on positive mental health self-care strategies to address symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder, generalised anxiety and depression in the target populations were identified by systematically searching eight electronic databases and grey literature.

"It Is Definitely a Good Program for Everyone from Every Community": A Qualitative Study of Community Partner Perspectives on the Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) Mindfulness Program.

Meeting the health needs of migrant and refugee communities is crucial to successful settlement and integration. These communities are often under-served by mental health services. Previous research has demonstrated the effectiveness of a group mindfulness-based intervention tailored for Arabic and Bangla speakers living in Sydney, Australia.

A Qualitative Exploration of Sources of Help for Mental Illness in Arabic-, Mandarin-, and Swahili-Speaking Communities in Sydney, Australia.

Despite being disproportionately affected by poor mental health, culturally and linguistically diverse (CaLD) individuals seek help from mental health services at lower rates than others in the Australian population. The preferred sources of help for mental illness amongst CaLD individuals remain poorly understood. The aim of this study was to explore sources of help in Arabic-, Mandarin-, and Swahili-speaking communities in Sydney, Australia.

The Availability, Appropriateness, and Integration of Services to Promote Indigenous Australian Youth Wellbeing and Mental Health: Indigenous Youth and Service Provider Perspectives.

Concerns about the complexity, fragmentation and inefficiency of Australia's current youth mental health service systems have led policy makers to seek improvements through a shift to community-based solutions. However, there is little evidence of how communities can make this shift. This paper examines the efforts of one Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (hereafter, respectfully, Indigenous) community-Yarrabah in north Queensland-to develop strategies for mental health and wellbeing service system improvements for school-aged youth (5-18 years).

Conceptualisations of mental illness and stigma in Congolese, Arabic-speaking and Mandarin-speaking communities: a qualitative study.

Background: Australia is an ethnically diverse nation. Research has demonstrated an elevated risk of developing a mental illness in culturally and linguistically diverse (CaLD) communities yet uptake of mental health services is low. To improve mental health treatment seeking and outcomes for CaLD individuals in Australia there is an urgent need to deeply understand barriers to treatment such as stigma.

Promoting Mental Health and Wellbeing in Multicultural Australia: A Collaborative Regional Approach.

Migrant communities are often under-served by mental health services. Lack of community engagement results in missed opportunities for mental health promotion and early intervention, delayed care, and high rates of untreated psychological distress. Bilingual clinicians and others who work with these communities lack linguistically and culturally appropriate resources.

Barriers and enablers to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander careers in health: A qualitative, multisector study in western New South Wales.

Objective: Growing a strong Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health workforce is key to closing the gap in health outcomes between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. This study sought to explore barriers and enablers to career development for Aboriginal health staff and potential strategies to enhance career pathways.

Design: Qualitative study, with data collected primarily through focus group discussions (yarning circles) at different health workplaces.

"You Can't Work with My People If You Don't Know How to": Enhancing Transfer of Care from Hospital to Primary Care for Aboriginal Australians with Chronic Disease.

Indigenous Australians experience significantly poorer health compared to other Australians, with chronic disease contributing to two-thirds of the health gap. We report on an evaluation of an innovative model that leverages mainstream and Aboriginal health resources to enable safe, supported transfer of care for Aboriginal adults with chronic conditions leaving hospital. The multisite evaluation was Aboriginal-led and underpinned by the principles of self-determination and equity and Indigenous research protocols.

Effectiveness of a Community-based Group Mindfulness Program tailored for Arabic and Bangla-speaking Migrants.

Background: Migrant communities are often underserved by mainstream mental health services resulting in high rates of untreated psychological distress. This collaborative study built on evidence that mindfulness-based interventions delivered in-language and culturally tailored were acceptable and clinically effective for Arabic speakers in Australia. It aimed to establish whether a group mindfulness program produced expected outcomes under normal operational conditions, and to test its scalability and its transferability to Bangla speakers.

A framework for preferred practices in conducting culturally competent health research in a multicultural society.

Background: Improving the health and well-being of the whole population requires that health inequities be addressed. In an era of unprecedented international migration, meeting the health care needs of growing multicultural or multiethnic societies presents major challenges for health care systems and for health researchers. Considerable literature exists on the methodological and ethical difficulties of conducting research in a cross-cultural context; however, there is a need for a framework to guide health research in multicultural societies.

Systems integration to promote the mental health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children: protocol for a community-driven continuous quality improvement approach.

Background: Systems integration to promote the mental health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children works towards developing a spectrum of effective, community-based services and supports. These services and supports are organised into a coordinated network, build meaningful partnerships with families and address their cultural and linguistic needs, to help children to function better at home, in school, in the community, and throughout life. This study is conducted in partnership with primary healthcare (PHC) and other services in three diverse Indigenous Australian communities.

Understanding the needs of local youth to inform drug and alcohol prevention and harm reduction services: A qualitative study.

Issue Addressed: Reducing drug and alcohol harm is a public health priority and the Australian government has adopted a harm minimisation approach to policy. Understanding the needs of local youth is necessary for the design of relevant prevention and harm reduction services.

Methods: Using 5 unstructured focus groups and 10 interviews involving 30 participants recruited from different settings, this study explored youth perspectives around alcohol and other drugs and the psychosocial factors that influence their substance use.

Integration of traditional and western treatment approaches in mental health care in Pacific Island Countries.

Objective: To explore the extent of integration of traditional and western approaches in mental health care in Pacific Island Countries (PICs).

Method: Examination of national mental health policies and literature review.

Results: Traditional healers were included as resources for mental health in four of the seven policies that we were able to access.

Evaluation of the acceptability and clinical utility of an Arabic-language mindfulness CD in an Australian community setting.

The cultural, linguistic, and religious diversity of Australia's population presents challenges for mental health service delivery. Arabic-speaking communities in Australia underutilise mental health services despite high levels of trauma and psychological distress. Clinicians who work with this population lack linguistically and culturally appropriate clinical resources.

Integration of Indigenous healing practices with western biomedicine in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States of America: a scoping review protocol.

This scoping review aims to explore the following questions.

Interventions to improve access to cataract surgical services and their impact on equity in low- and middle-income countries.

Background: Cataract is the leading cause of blindness in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), and the prevalence is inequitably distributed between and within countries. Interventions have been undertaken to improve cataract surgical services, however, the effectiveness of these interventions on promoting equity is not known.

Objectives: To assess the effects on equity of interventions to improve access to cataract services for populations with cataract blindness (and visual impairment) in LMICs.

Reliability and Validity of Measures for Investigating the Determinants of Health Behaviors Among Women With a History of Gestational Diabetes.

Aim: Assisting women with a history of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) to adopt healthy lifestyles is a priority for diabetes prevention. The aim of this study was to develop and evaluate measures that can be used to assess the efficacy of behavior change interventions in this group.

Method: Measures of psychosocial influences on physical activity and diet were derived from formative research and examination of established instruments.

Beyond diagnosis and survivorship: findings from a mixed-methods study of a community-based cancer support service.

This consumer-led research investigated the client experiences and the individual and community benefits of a community-based cancer support service operating in a regional setting. The study included cross-sectional surveys, focus group discussions and key-informant interviews. In total, 114 clients, 28 carers and 20 therapists were surveyed; three client focus groups were conducted and five directors and staff were interviewed.

Psychological Distress in Iranian International Students at an Australian University.

This study investigated psychological distress in Iranian international students at UNSW Australia, and explored the psychosocial factors associated with high levels of distress. A total of 180 Iranian international students pursuing undergraduate and postgraduate degrees during 2012/2013 completed an email questionnaire containing socio-demographic items and five standardized and validated scales. Multivariable logistic regression was used to analyse the predictors of psychological distress.

Inequality in cataract blindness and services: moving beyond unidimensional analyses of social position.

Objective: Inequalities in cataract blindness are well known, but data are rarely disaggregated to explore the combined effects of a range of axes describing social disadvantage. We examined inequalities in cataract blindness and services at the intersection of three social axes.

Methods: Three dichotomous social variables (sex (male/female); place of residence (urban/rural); literacy (literate/illiterate)) from cross-sectional national blindness surveys in Pakistan (2001-2004; n=16 507) and Nigeria (2005-2007; n=13 591) were used to construct eight subgroups, with disadvantaged subgroups selected a priori (ie, women, rural dwellers, illiterate).

Realisation of a joint consumer engagement strategy in the Nepean Blue Mountains region.

Ensuring consumer engagement at different levels of the health system - direct care, organisational design and governance and policy - has become a strategic priority. This case study explored, through interviews with six purposively selected 'insiders' and document review, how one Medicare Local (now a Primary Health Network, PHN) and Local Health District worked together with consumers, to establish a common consumer engagement structure and mechanisms to support locally responsive, integrated and consumer-centred services. The two healthcare organisations worked as partners across the health system, sharing ownership and responsibility.

Equity and Blindness: Closing Evidence Gaps to Support Universal Eye Health.

Purpose: The World Health Organization Program for the Prevention of Blindness adopted the principles of universal health coverage (UHC) in its latest plan, Universal Eye Health: A Global Action Plan, 2014-2019. This plan builds on the achievements of Vision 2020, which aimed to reduce the global prevalence of avoidable blindness, and its unequal distribution, by the year 2020.

Methods: We reviewed the literature on health equity and the generation and use of evidence to promote equity, particularly in eye health.

A decade of peace: Mental health issues and service developments in the Solomon Islands since 2003.

Objective: To describe the impact on mental health and psychosocial wellbeing of the armed conflict that occurred in the Solomon Islands from 1998-2003 and the subsequent political unrest and natural disasters, and the developments in mental health services since 2003.

Method: A literature and document review was conducted, supplemented by the written reflections of senior staff in the Solomon Islands Mental Health Service.

Results: Conflict and natural disaster have had a significant impact on the mental health and functioning of individuals, families and communities.

The value of partnerships: lessons from a multi-site evaluation of a national social and emotional wellbeing program for Indigenous youth.

Objective: To evaluate the first three years of a national program to improve the social and emotional wellbeing of Indigenous youth in remote and regional Australia.

Methods: Combination of open inquiry and audit review involving investigation of process and outcomes, with a broad national overview supplemented by five in-depth case studies in diverse settings.

Results: Community development principles were applied at all 14 sites.

Love stories: understanding the caring journeys of aged Greek-Australian carers.

This article documents the findings of a short-term longitudinal study that explored the caring journeys of aged Greek carers providing in-home care for their spouse. Through a deeper understanding of carers' decisions and decision-making and insights from service providers and community leaders, we aimed to inform policy makers, service managers and providers about how to develop and promote culturally appropriate support services, and negotiate them with carers and care recipients in a timely way. Initially, we conducted three focus groups and one follow-up forum with service providers and Greek community leaders.