Timeframe
2024‑2025
Funding
Health Research Council of New Zealand
COMPASS staff
Barry Milne
Martin von Randow
Collaborators
University of Auckland
Jay Marlowe
Arezoo Malihi
Description
This project, led by Professor Jay Marlowe at the Centre for Asia Pacific Refugee Studies, investigates mental health service utilisation among a cohort of children from refugee backgrounds and a cohort of children from migrant backgrounds, and looks at associations between this and their education outcomes.
New Zealand responded to an unprecedented global refugee crisis by increasing its quota for refugees and allowing their families to settle here. Despite the quota increase and refugee sector concerns regarding challenges in delivering mental health support to this highly understudied population (particularly refugee children and young people), there is a lack of epidemiological research aimed at pinpointing main needs and service gaps or potential interventions to address them. Our population-based analyses of administrative data signal high needs in mental health service utilisation among refugees.
We have formed an interdisciplinary team of researchers spanning mental health, public policy, social sciences, and economics, and initiated connections with both mental health service providers in the sector and refugee youth NGOs. This project aims to foster and strengthen this connection and further collaborations between stakeholders to identify research gaps and to design studies that inform policies to help improving service provision and hence wellbeing for refugee children and young people.