School of Social Sciences
Refugee Health Research Centre - Current Projects
SettleMEN Project
Evaluation of the NEXUS Suicide Prevention Program
Good Starts Study for Refugee Youth
Good Starts Arts
Removal of Seriously Ill Asylum Seekers Project
Promoting Sexual Health Among Refugee Youth
Equal Like Me
SettleMEN project: A dialogue with men from a refugee background
The SettleMEN project is a longitudinal descriptive study aiming at gaining a deeper understanding of the health and resettlement experiences of recently arrived adult men from a refugee background who are living in Brisbane and Toowoomba (Queensland). The project, which is funded by the NHMRC (Project Grant 487323), is a partnership between the RHRC and the Queensland Program of Assistance to Survivors of Torture and Trauma (QPASTT).
For more information click here or contact Gerald Onsando (g.onsando@latrobe.edu.au) or Ignacio Correa-Velez (i.correa-velez@latrobe.edu.au)
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Evaluation of the NEXUS Suicide Prevention Program – Queensland Program of Assistance to Survivors of Torture and Trauma (QPASTT)
The NEXUS program, which is conducted by QPASTT and funded by the National Suicide Prevention Strategy, aims at promoting wellbeing and building resilience among young refugees aged 12-24 living in Brisbane and Toowoomba (Queensland). NEXUS activities seek to enhance three of the major preventative factors against suicide: connectedness to people and place; locus of control, and perceived academic performance. The 2-year evaluation of the program, which started in September 2007, is being conducted by the RHRC’s Brisbane based team.
For more information contact Ignacio Correa-Velez (i.correa-velez@latrobe.edu.au) Back to List
Good Starts Study for Refugee Youth
A longitudinal ethnographic study of health and wellbeing of newly arrived refugee youth.
The aim of this ethnographic study is to describe the social contexts and determinants that promote mental and social wellbeing for newly arrived refugee youth during settlement. The study has recruited 120 newly arrived young people from refugee backgrounds aged 11 to 19 years and is following these youth over a four year period. The study uses a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods. Study outcomes will inform policy, programs and services in the education and welfare sectors, in relation to optimal outcomes for refugee youth.
For more information click here or contact Christine Bakopanos
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Good Starts Arts
A three-year visual anthropology and community arts project that will strengthen and enhance the qualitative component of the Good Starts for Refugee Youth Project. Utilising visual anthropology methods within an action research framework, researchers and community artists will work with twenty refugee young people to develop autoethnographic audio-visual materials exploring their experiences of settling in Australia . The resulting materials will provide qualitative data for analysis, as well as a means of giving the general public insight into the experiences of refugee young people settling in Australia . The project will also facilitate skills development and wellbeing outcomes for participants.
For more information click here or contact Amber McQueen
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Removal of Seriously Ill Asylum Seekers Project
A project aiming to investigate the tensions between the right to health and current Australian government policies and practices relating to the health care needs and removal of seriously ill asylum seekers who have been refused asylum in Australia. It is being carried out in collaboration with the Asylum Seeker Project at Hotham Mission. The experiences of seriously ill asylum seekers facing removal from Australia will be documented through in-depth interviews with case workers working in key asylum seeker support organisations in Victoria and interstate (n=10) and through in-depth interviews with four seriously ill asylum seekers who are awaiting removal from Australia. A comprehensive review and analysis of policy documents at the State and Commonwealth levels will be complemented by a comparison of these documents with the International Conventions on health and human rights to which Australia is a signatory. A short telephone survey of refugee and asylum seekers organisations in Victoria and Australia working in this area (n=30) will contribute to the development of strategies and approaches to improving policy and practice.
This project has now been concluded, and a full report is available (pdf - 613 KB).
For more information, contact Robyn Sampson Back to List
Promoting Sexual Health Among Refugee Youth
The research project entitled “Promoting Sexual Health Among Refugee Youth” commenced in May 2007. This study focuses on how refugee youth access, interpret and implement sexual health information. The study builds on the RHRC ‘Good Starts’ project which identified the need to improve health literacy, particularly in the areas of sexual and reproductive health. This project is funded through the Victorian Department of Human Services. The findings from this study will be used to develop appropriate strategies to promote sexual health and sexual health literacy among refugee youth in Victoria. The study is being carried out by the Refugee Health Research Centre, the Centre for Multicultural Youth Issues, and Footscray Youth Housing Group. The project has been granted ethics approval through the University Human Ethics Committee. Data collection commenced in August 2007, and includes consultations with key people, interviews with relevant health professionals and youth and case-workers, and in-depth interviews and focus group discussions with newly-arrived refugee youth. Analysis and preparation of written reports will be completed during 2008.
For more information contact Celia McMichael Back to List
Equal like me
Equal like me poster (pdf - 324 KB)
The overall aim of Equal like me is to enable young people to capture what being equal in Australia means for them through photos and stories. We will give cameras to young people from refugee backgrounds and other young migrants to record their everyday experiences.
Each participant will use a camera to reflect on issues of equality and discrimination in a creative way. Using these photos, they can discuss their experiences, produce vignettes or photo stories and contribute to the exhibition.
The exhibition will be a public event and will be used as an educational resource. It will inform the wider public about the ways in which the social inclusion of young people of refugee and other migrant backgrounds is experienced, its impact on their identity, their sense of self and their aspirations for their future in Australia.
The pilot study of Equal like me started in September 2007 at Princes Hill Secondary College in Melbourne and is being funded by Andyinc Foundation.
For more information, contact Kathrin Schmieder
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