‘We are family!’ The kinship between individual cosponsor and sponsored refugee(s) and its impact on mental health service uptake

Resettled refugees underutilize mental health services, despite being the immigrant population with the highest incidence of mental health issues. In Canada, individual cosponsors, particularly family members of refugees, play a crucial role in providing social support and fostering a sense of belonging during the resettlement period. These have proven effective in promoting the mental health and overall well-being of refugees. The primary objective of this research is to investigate whether the kinship (family dynamics) between individual cosponsors and refugees influences the refugees’ willingness to access mental health services when needed. Purposive sampling was used to select nine participants. The semi-structure interviews conducted explored the participants’ experiences with mental health issues during the sponsorship process. Five individual cosponsors (CS) and four group sponsor representatives (CG) were interviewed. Inductive thematic analysis was used to code and analyze the data. Sixteen sponsorship experiences were discussed during the interviews. CGs identified social support and relationship building as factors influencing refugees’ access to mental health services. In contrast, CSs emphasised the role of reducing stigma associated with mental health in facilitating refugees’ access to such services. The results suggest that, despite the presence of social support, sense of belonging, and family dynamics inherent in the kinship between CS and refugee, the stigma surrounding mental health remains a significant determinant of refugee access to services. It is important to note that most participants based their responses on hypothetical scenarios rather than actual experiences, as only two out of the sixteen sponsorships mentioned involved mental health issues.