Immigrants Access To Mental Health Essay

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In this research paper, a variety of articles are examined about immigrants’ access to mental health services in Canada. It addresses the significant barriers to utilization of resources, and it also makes suggestions about changes that could improve mental health services for immigrants.
Although immigrants receive economic and political support in Canada, often social support does not follow the same pattern. New immigrants are oftentimes faced with factors that affect their utilization of government services that can help them transition to their new life. Factors such as language barriers, discrimination, unacceptance, health beliefs, and religious practices can all affect their ability to search for help. These barriers can also cause a huge impact on …show more content…

Once an immigrant proceeds to receive help, they may be faced with cultural and language barriers as well. To eliminate these barriers for immigrants, there needs to me major adjustments to the services that are set out to help them. There are many flaws within mental health services that make it harder for immigrants to approach and achieve the help that they need. There has been a fair amount of research done into what changes and recommendations can be done to improve the services. There is a need for more culturally sensitive mental health education programs that will encourage immigrants to learn more about their mental health. Health promotion strategies and stigma issues can also be addressed in a culturally competent way. Since mental health services may be unknown to immigrants, there needs to be clarification about what the services are and how they can improve an individual’s health (Kirmayer et al., n.d., as cited in Thomson et al., 2015). Socioeconomic issues can also accompany immigration and lead to added stress on new residents. There is a need for mental

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