Digital Mental Health and Social Connectedness: Experiences of Women from Refugee Backgrounds

2022. Amid Ayobi, Rachel Eardley, Ewan Soubutts, Rachael Gooberman-Hill, Ian Craddock & Aisling O'Kane
Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction.

Abstract

A detailed understanding of the mental health needs of people from refugee backgrounds is crucial for the design of inclusive mental health technologies. We present a qualitative account of the digital mental health experiences of women from refugee backgrounds. Working with community members and community workers of a charitable organisation for refugee women in the UK, we identify social and structural challenges, including loneliness and access to mental health technologies. Participants' accounts document their collective agency in addressing these challenges and supporting social connectedness and personal wellbeing in daily life: participants reported taking part in community activities as volunteers, sharing technological expertise, and using a wide range of non-mental health-focused technologies to support their mental health, from playing games to supporting religious practices. Our findings suggest that, rather than focusing only on individual self-care, research also needs to leverage community-driven approaches to foster social mental health experiences, from altruism to connectedness and belonging.

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Citation

Ayobi, A., Eardley, R., Soubutts, E., Gooberman-Hill, R., Craddock, I., & O'Kane, A. A. (2022 , nov). Digital mental health and social connectedness: experiences of women from refugee backgrounds. Proc. ACM Hum.-Comput. Interact., 6(CSCW2). URL: https://doi.org/10.1145/3555620, doi:10.1145/3555620

BibTeX

@article{10.1145/3555620,
author = {Ayobi, Amid and Eardley, Rachel and Soubutts, Ewan and Gooberman-Hill, Rachael and Craddock, Ian and O'Kane, Aisling Ann},
title = {Digital Mental Health and Social Connectedness: Experiences of Women from Refugee Backgrounds},
year = {2022},
issue_date = {November 2022},
publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery},
address = {New York, NY, USA},
volume = {6},
number = {CSCW2},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1145/3555620},
doi = {10.1145/3555620},
abstract = {A detailed understanding of the mental health needs of people from refugee backgrounds is crucial for the design of inclusive mental health technologies. We present a qualitative account of the digital mental health experiences of women from refugee backgrounds. Working with community members and community workers of a charitable organisation for refugee women in the UK, we identify social and structural challenges, including loneliness and access to mental health technologies. Participants' accounts document their collective agency in addressing these challenges and supporting social connectedness and personal wellbeing in daily life: participants reported taking part in community activities as volunteers, sharing technological expertise, and using a wide range of non-mental health-focused technologies to support their mental health, from playing games to supporting religious practices. Our findings suggest that, rather than focusing only on individual self-care, research also needs to leverage community-driven approaches to foster social mental health experiences, from altruism to connectedness and belonging.},
journal = {Proc. ACM Hum.-Comput. Interact.},
month = {nov},
articleno = {507},
numpages = {27},
keywords = {agency, altruism, asylum-seeking, digital mental health, empowerment, immigrant, mental health, refugee, self-care, social connectedness, wellbeing, women}
}