scholarly journals The role of mental health in primary prevention of sexual and gender-based violence

2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 24741 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aník Gevers ◽  
Elizabeth Dartnall
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Primary Prevention ◽  
Gender Based Violence ◽  
Gender Based ◽  
And Gender

scholarly journals Exploring the mental health and psychosocial problems of Congolese refugees living in refugee settings in Rwanda and Uganda: a rapid qualitative study

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Chiumento ◽  
Theoneste Rutayisire ◽  
Emmanuel Sarabwe ◽  
M. Tasdik Hasan ◽  
Rosco Kasujja ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Qualitative Study ◽  
Social Relationships ◽  
Poor Mental Health ◽  
Gender Based Violence ◽  
Free List ◽  
Psychosocial Wellbeing ◽  
Key Informant ◽  
Gender Based ◽  
And Gender

Abstract Background Refugees fleeing conflict often experience poor mental health due to experiences in their country of origin, during displacement, and in new host environments. Conditions in refugee camps and settlements, and the wider socio-political and economic context of refugees’ lives, create structural conditions that compound the effects of previous adversity. Mental health and psychosocial support services must address the daily stressors and adversities refugees face by being grounded in the lived reality of refugee’s lives and addressing issues relevant to them. Methods We undertook a rapid qualitative study between March and May 2019 to understand the local prioritisation of problems facing Congolese refugees living in two refugee settings in Uganda and Rwanda. Thirty free list interviews were conducted in each setting, followed by 11 key informant interviews in Uganda and 12 in Rwanda. Results Results from all interviews were thematically analysed following a deductive process by the in-country research teams. Free list interview findings highlight priority problems of basic needs such as food, shelter, and healthcare access; alongside contextual social problems including discrimination/inequity and a lack of gender equality. Priority problems relating to mental and psychosocial health explored in key informant interviews include discrimination and inequity; alcohol and substance abuse; and violence and gender-based violence. Conclusions Our findings strongly resonate with models of mental health and psychosocial wellbeing that emphasise their socially determined and contextually embedded nature. Specifically, findings foreground the structural conditions of refugees’ lives such as the physical organisation of camp spaces or refugee policies that are stigmatising through restricting the right to work or pursue education. This structural environment can lead to disruptions in social relationships at the familial and community levels, giving rise to discrimination/inequity and gender-based violence. Therefore, our findings foreground that one consequence of living in situations of pervasive adversity caused by experiences of discrimination, inequity, and violence is poor mental health and psychosocial wellbeing. This understanding reinforces the relevance of feasible and acceptable intervention approaches that aim to strengthening familial and community-level social relationships, building upon existing community resources to promote positive mental health and psychosocial wellbeing among Congolese refugees in these settings.

scholarly journals Narrative Imagination and Social Change: Instructors in Agricultural Colleges in Ethiopia Address Sexual and Gender-Based Violence

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
S. M. Hani Sadati ◽  
Claudia Mitchell
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Extensive Literature ◽  
Gender Based Violence ◽  
Post Secondary ◽  
Narrative Imagination ◽  
Rural Settings ◽  
Agricultural Colleges ◽  
Gender Based ◽  
And Gender

Ethiopia has one of the highest rates of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) in the world, making female students particularly vulnerable in its post-secondary institutions. Although there is extensive literature that describes the problem, mainly from the students' perspectives, what remains understudied is the role of instructors, their perception of the current issues, and what they imagine they can do to address campus-based SGBV, particularly in rural settings. In this study, we used the concept of narrative imagination to work with instructors in four Ethiopian agricultural colleges to explore how they understand the SGBV issues at their colleges and what they imagine their own role could include in efforts to combat these problems. Using qualitative narrative-based methods such as interviews and an interactive storyline development workshop, as well as cellphilming (cellphone + film) as a participatory visual method, the data were collected across several fieldwork phases. We consider how we might broaden this framework of narrative imagination to include the notion of art for social change.

scholarly journals Risk of Gender-Based Violence and Poor Mental Health Among Nepalese Women During COVID-19 Pandemic: A Review

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 39-46
Author(s):  
Lalita Kumari Sah ◽  
Prabhu Sah ◽  
Manoj Kumar Yadav ◽  
Surya B. Parajuli ◽  
Rinku Shah
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Poor Mental Health ◽  
Service Access ◽  
Gender Based Violence ◽  
Health Service Access ◽  
Limited Health ◽  
Gender Based ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Financial Dependency

During Covid-19 pandemic, gender-based violence (GBV) against women and poor mental health with limited health service access for women have received paramount attention among researchers, policy makers, health professionals and healthcare service providers. This paper presents a review of published articles in an attempt to understand GBV and poor mental health among Nepalese women in the context of Covid-19. Evidence suggests that gender inequality and gender-based violence have played a significant role in increasing mental health issues among women during the pandemic. Social factors such as low education, financial dependency, lack of support system, limited access to healthcare, lack of awareness about the GBV laws, and cultural norms that put women in the lower position within the society are the realities of majority of Nepalese women. These factors intersect each other and present compounded risks that put women at more vulnerable position than others, which is further exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic putting Nepalese women at risks of GBV and poor mental health compared to men in the society. The paper also recommends actions that are required to address the GBV and poor mental health among Nepalese women.

scholarly journals Health Status and Health Care Needs of Drought-Related Migrants in the Horn of Africa—A Qualitative Investigation

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (16) ◽  
pp. 5917
Author(s):  
Kristina Lindvall ◽  
John Kinsman ◽  
Atakelti Abraha ◽  
Abdirisak Dalmar ◽  
Mohamed Farah Abdullahi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Services ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Mental Health Problems ◽  
Horn Of Africa ◽  
Gender Based Violence ◽  
Care Needs ◽  
Internally Displaced ◽  
Gender Based ◽  
And Gender

Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia, situated in the Horn of Africa, are highly vulnerable to climate change, which manifests itself through increasing temperatures, erratic rains and prolonged droughts. Millions of people have to flee from droughts or floods either as cross-border refugees or as internally displaced persons (IDPs). The aim of this study was to identify knowledge status and gaps regarding public health consequences of large-scale displacement in these countries. After a scoping review, we conducted qualitative in-depth interviews during 2018 with 39 stakeholders from different disciplines and agencies in these three countries. A validation workshop was held with a selection of 13 interviewees and four project partners. Malnutrition and a lack of vaccination of displaced people are well-known challenges, while mental health problems and gender-based violence (GBV) are less visible to stakeholders. In particular, the needs of IDPs are not well understood. The treatment of mental health and GBV is insufficient, and IDPs have inadequate access to essential health services in refugee camps. Needs assessment and program evaluations with a patients’ perspective are either lacking or inadequate in most situations. The Horn of Africa is facing chronic food insecurity, poor population health and mass displacement. IDPs are an underserved group, and mental health services are lacking. A development approach is necessary that moves beyond emergency responses to the building of long-term resilience, the provision of livelihood support and protection to reduce displacement by droughts.

Effects of migration on women’s psychosocial health

2021 ◽  
pp. 137-140
Author(s):  
Mauro Carta ◽  
Giulia Cossu ◽  
Caterina La Cascia
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Psychosocial Health ◽  
African Women ◽  
Migrant Women ◽  
Post Traumatic Stress ◽  
Gender Based Violence ◽  
Humanitarian Organizations ◽  
Post Traumatic ◽  
Gender Based ◽  
And Gender

The scientific community and humanitarian organizations have produced a considerable amount of research on the mental health status of migrants. However, few studies have looked at the mental health of migrant women. This chapter is aimed to study this phenomenon, beginning with an examination of risks related to sexual and gender-based violence in the different steps of the migration process, and the psychological implications of the migratory process on Mediterranean African women in Europe. The migration and different forms of violence on women are associated with psychopathological manifestations such as post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, adaptation, and trauma- and stressor-related disorders. There is very limited knowledge on the lived experiences of migrant women and in future studies researchers should investigate the relationship between migration, gender, and mental health, in order to encourage the policies and prevention/treatment programmes for women and for psychosocial issues that may arise.

Role of Climate Change in Exacerbating Sexual and Gender-Based Violence against Women: A New Challenge for International Law

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Bharat H. Desai ◽  
Moumita Mandal
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
International Law ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Gender Based Violence ◽  
Women And Girls ◽  
Political Security ◽  
Gender Based ◽  
And Gender

The advent of climate change era has been affirmed by various global processes including 21 May 2019 recognition by the Anthropocene Working Group of ‘human impact’ in bringing profound alterations on planet earth. It has emerged as the predominant ‘world problematique’. Though entire populations are affected by climate change, women and girls suffer the most. Due to their traditional roles, women are heavily dependent on natural resources. As already seen, as a consequence of natural disasters and during Covid-19 pandemic in 2020-21, women have faced heightened real-life challenges specially being vulnerable to different forms of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV). They suffer from a lack of protection, privacy, and mental trauma. Women are exposed to SGBV due to weak or absence of social, economic, political security and the culture of widespread impunity to the perpetrators. There is double victimization of women both as human beings and because of their gender. Effect of SGBV is highly injurious and perpetual. A close study of four main areas of international law does not yield any international legal instrument that deals with SGBV against women during and after the climate change induced disasters. This is more ominous when growing evidence suggests role of climate change in exacerbation of SGBV against women and girls. Even texts of the three specific climate change treaties (1992 UNFCCC, 1997 Kyoto Protocol and 2005 Paris Agreement) do not address this issue. It has been given attention only through the decisions of the Conference of the Parties in recent years. Due to serious psychological and bodily harm SGBV causes to women, it needs to be explicitly factored in respective international legal instruments on climate change and disasters. Amidst ignorance, denials and lack of adequate attention as regards impact of climate change in exacerbating SGBV against women and girls from the scholars and decision-makers in the field, this study makes a modest effort to deduce and analyze –from scattered initiatives, scholarly literature in different areas, existing international legal instruments and intergovernmental processes –the growing causal relationship between climate change and SGBV against women and girls so as to suggest a way out for our better common future. It is a new challenge to international law that needs to be duly addressed in a timely manner.

COVID-19 feminist framework and biopsychosocial-spiritual perspective for social workers and mental health practitioners to manage violence, abuse, and trauma against children, women, BIPOC, and LGBTQIA+ during and post-COVID-19

2021 ◽  
pp. 002087282110671
Author(s):  
Sonia Mukhtar
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Mental Health Practitioners ◽  
Gender Based Violence ◽  
Health Practitioners ◽  
Spiritual Perspective ◽  
Gender Based ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The Individual

This article explains the integrated implementation of a COVID-19 Feminist Framework (CFF) and biopsychosocial-spiritual perspective (BPSS-P) on the inclusive equitability of social service providers, practitioners, and policy-developers on global platforms. Mechanisms of CFF and BPSS-P entail the process to address/mitigate institutional inequities, mental health issues, violation of human rights, race/sex/gender-based violence, abuse, and trauma amid COVID-19. This discourse is about raising consciousness, collective liberation, wellbeing, and equality for women, children, BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, and gender-diverse people. This article further discusses social workers and mental health practitioners’ uniqueness for short-term and long-term support for emotional, cognitive-behavioral, and psychosocial repercussions on the individual and community levels.

Crossing Borders

2021 ◽  
pp. 195-213
Author(s):  
Burcu Ozturk ◽  
Asli Cennet Yalim ◽  
Sinem Toraman
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Health Issues ◽  
Gender Based Violence ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
Mental Health Issues ◽  
High Commissioner ◽  
The World ◽  
Gender Based ◽  
And Gender

People around the world are moving from their home countries to other destinations to find safety for various reasons such as war, poverty, and violence. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), 70.8 million people had been forced to move from their home countries by the end of 2018 and half of the world's displaced population is women. This chapter explores the challenges that refugee and asylum-seeker women experience, including mental health issues and sexual and gender-based violence. The authors systematically reviewed relevant studies that have been published in peer-reviewed journals that were from January 2000 through January 2020. Six articles met the inclusion criteria. The authors critically explored and analyzed these six articles, and the findings were discussed under the subjects of mental health and gender-based issues. Finally, recommendations were made to determine future directions for practice, policy, and research.

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