Exploring community capacity: Karen refugee women’s mental health

Simple item page
dc.contributor.authorClark, Nancy
dc.date.accessioned2025-08-15T19:08:12Z
dc.date.available2025-08-15T19:08:12Z
dc.date.issued2018
dc.description.abstractPurpose– The purpose of this paper is to describe Karen refugee women’s experience of resettlement and the factors which structured community capacity to support their mental health and well-being. Design/methodology/approach– A postcolonial and feminist standpoint was used to bring Karen women’s voice to the knowledge production process. Data were collected through ethnographic field observation, in-depth semi-structured individual and focus group interviews with Karen women as well as healthcare and social service providers. Findings– Three interrelated themes emerged from the data: Karen women’s construction of mental health as “stress and worry”; gender, language and health literacy intersected, shaping Karen women’s access to health care and social resources; flexible partnerships between settlement agencies, primary care and public health promoted community capacity but were challenged by neoliberalism. Research limitations/implications– Karen women and families are a diverse group with a unique historical context. Not all the findings are applicable across refugee women. Practical implications– This paper highlights the social determinants of mental health for Karen women and community responses for mitigating psychological distress during resettlement. Social implications– Public health policy requires a contextualized understanding of refugee women’s mental health. Health promotion in resettlement must include culturally safe provision of health care to mitigate sources of psychological distress during resettlement. Originality/value– This research brings a postcolonial and feminist analysis to community capacity as a public health strategy.
dc.description.reviewstatusReviewed
dc.description.scholarlevelFaculty
dc.identifier.citationClark, N. (2018). Exploring community capacity: Karen refugee women’s mental health. International Journal of Human Rights in Healthcare, 11(4), 244–256. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJHRH-02-2018-0025
dc.identifier.urihttps://doi.org/10.1108/IJHRH-02-2018-0025
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/1828/22611
dc.language.isoen
dc.publisherInternational Journal of Human Rights in Healthcare
dc.rightsCC BY 4.0
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
dc.subjectmental health
dc.subjectintersectionality
dc.subjectcultural safety
dc.subjectcommunity capacity
dc.subjectgender
dc.subjectstructural violence
dc.subjectKaren women
dc.subjectpostcolonial feminist
dc.subject.departmentSchool of Nursing
dc.titleExploring community capacity: Karen refugee women’s mental health
dc.typeArticle

Files

Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
clark_nancy_ijhrh_2018.pdf
Size:
304.02 KB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Download

Collections

Faculty and Staff Publications
 
University of Victoria Libraries

We acknowledge and respect the Lək̓ʷəŋən (Songhees and Esquimalt) Peoples on whose territory the university stands, and the Lək̓ʷəŋən and W̱SÁNEĆ Peoples whose historical relationships with the land continue to this day.