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J Immigrant Minority Health (2014) 16:968977 DOI 10.1007/s10903-013-9835-3
ORIGINAL PAPER
A Systematic Review of Naturalistic Interventions in Refugee Populations
Sierra van Wyk Robert D. Schweitzer
Published online: 11 May 2013 Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013
Abstract Naturalistic interventions with refugee populations examine outcomes following mental health interventions in existing refugee service organisations. The current review aimed to examine outcomes of naturalistic interventions and quality of the naturalistic intervention literature in refugee populations with the view to highlight the strengths and limitations of naturalistic intervention studies. Database search was conducted using the search terms refugee, asylum seeker, treatment, therapy and intervention. No date limitations were applied, but searches were limited to articles written in English. Seven studies were identied that assessed the outcome of naturalistic interventions on adult refugees or asylum seekers in a country of resettlement using quantitative outcome measures. Results showed signicant variation in the outcomes of naturalistic intervention studies, with a trend towards showing decreased symptomatology at post-intervention. However, conclusions are limited by methodological problems of the studies reviewed, particularly poor documentation of intervention methods and lack of control in the design of naturalistic intervention studies. Further examination of outcomes following naturalistic interventions is needed with studies which focus on increasing the rigour of the outcome assessment process.
Keywords Refugee Mental health Intervention
Adult Systematic review
Introduction
This review will examine outcomes following naturalistic mental health interventions with people from refugee backgrounds. Naturalistic interventions refer to interventions which are provided to people from refugee backgrounds within treatment settings as opposed to controlled clinical trials. Naturalistic interventions evidence greater ecological validity compared to controlled trials or single case studies.
Given the nature of the refugee experience, many people from refugee backgrounds have been subjected to a range of traumatic experiences and have suffered signi-cant losses. The impact of these stressors on individual wellbeing is further confounded by difculties in the post-migration period, where early expectations of resettlement are often not met and difculties in acculturation arise. The combination of pre-migration trauma and loss, and post-migration difculties impact the mental health and wellbeing of people from refugee backgrounds [22], and necessitate specialised mental health interventions to address these issues. There is evidence to suggest that mental health interventions are effective in minimising the distress...