Mental health interventions for immigrant-refugee children and youth living in Canada: a scoping review and way forward

Abstract

Background

Traumatic life events experienced by immigrant-refugee children and youth may deteriorate their mental health and well-being. It is a public health priority to develop appropriate mental health interventions for this population.

Aims

To understand the psychosocial needs of immigrant-refugee children and youth resettled in Canada in the context of their school and community and to identify the characteristics of school-/community-based mental health programs for this group.

Method

Arksey and O’Malley’s methodology for scoping reviews was used to select the studies based on criteria, extract data in a table, and synthesize main findings.

Results

Fifteen peer-reviewed articles and five grey literature were identified. Key findings show that collaboration between schools, communities, and families play a crucial role in developing and implementing comprehensive mental health interventions for immigrant-refugee children/youth. Involving cultural brokers/interpreters and racially diverse school teachers/staff, is important to establish a trustful relationship between school authorities and marginalized population.

Conclusions

Further research is needed to examine the impact of collaborative mental healthcare among multiracial and newcomer families in Canada. Furthermore, there is a need to study the impact of adopting creative expression programs at schools/communities to improve emotional/behavioural problems and enhance school performance of these groups.

Keywords:

• Immigrants
• refugees
• mental health programs
• school-based
• community-based
• children
• youth

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

This manuscript is a scoping review. The researchers have followed the PRISMA-ScR guidance (PRISMA extensions for scoping reviews).

Regarding the review protocol, the researchers confirm that PROSPERO does not accept registration of scoping reviews protocols. That means, our review protocol has not been published on PROSPERO. However, the approach we used is recognized as the best approach for the aim of this work. We have followed the Joanna Bridge Institute guidance and recommendations regarding writing a protocol for scoping reviews (Peters et al., 2017).

Peters, M., Godfrey, C., McInerney, P., Baldini Soares, C., Khalil, H., & Parker, D. (2017). Chapter 11: Scoping Reviews. In E. Aromataris & Z. Munn (Eds.), Joanna Briggs Institute Reviewer’s Manual. The Joanna Briggs Institute. Retrieved from https://reviewersmanual.joannabriggs.org/