Mental Health Care: (Eastern European) Migrants’ Perspectives.

  • Research type

    Research Study

  • Full title

    Navigating Mental Health in Northern Ireland: An Ethnography of Polish and Lithuanian Migrants’ Help-Seeking Strategies in a Translocal Landscape

  • IRAS ID

    263185

  • Contact name

    Maruska Svasek

  • Contact email

    m.svasek@qub.ac.uk

  • Sponsor organisation

    Queen's University Belfast, Research Governance Team

  • Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier

    N/A, N/A

  • Duration of Study in the UK

    1 years, 0 months, 0 days

  • Research summary

    The research considers how (Polish and Lithuanian/ Eastern European) migrants' manage their mental ill-health. NB: should there be low numbers of Polish and Lithuanian help-seeking individuals, or reluctance to participate, the sample will be extended to other migrant groups. The PhD Student will consider the mechanisms used by (Lithuanian and Polish) migrants to address their mental ill-health, and the reasons why they may refused or denied treatments or management in the past. The main research question will be; what are the constraining and enabling mechanisms that influence mental health help-seeking for (Polish and Lithuanian) migrants? The research will therefore involve viewpoints of migrants and those that advise, treat, and manage mental disorders. There will be a focus on, but not limited to, affective, or mood, disorders such as depressive, anxiety and trauma- and stressor-related disorders. The research will be able to consider the impact of migrants' environment, social life, family and other connections to address the main research question and migrants' mental ill-health.

    The research student anticipates conducting a series of semi-structured discussions with twenty Polish and twenty Lithuanian individuals who have settled in Northern Ireland (NI). Discussions will be sixty to ninety minutes long. All participants will be adults, with no upper age limit. The PhD Student will aim for, as far as possible, an even split of male and females. The participants will all have had a diagnosis of a mental health illness either in their homeland or in the UK/NI. The research student will also include fifteen to twenty mental health registrants involved in the provision of treatment, management and advice to migrants'. The mental health registrants will be formed of practitioners in secondary care. The cohort will be associated with the Northern and South Eastern Trusts. The study will last between nine and twelve months.

  • REC name

    HSC REC A

  • REC reference

    19/NI/0206

  • Date of REC Opinion

    20 Dec 2019

  • REC opinion

    Further Information Favourable Opinion