African migrant men’s experiences and preferences for formal mental health help-seeking: meta-synthesis and recommendations

ABSTRACT

Objective

Despite high rates of mental illness and significant barriers to accessing assistance, little is known about African migrant men’s views on formal mental health help-seeking (i.e. from a health professional) in their new countries. We aimed to synthesise qualitative literature on African migrant men’s experiences and preferences regarding formal mental health help-seeking in their new countries, and develop recommendations from the findings.

Method

Systematic searches of six databases (nil date restrictions) for qualitative data from adult men who had migrated from any of the 16 countries in Africa with largest numbers of emigrants to any country outside of Africa, for any reason. Study quality was assessed using the Qualsyst tool with a minimum .55 total for inclusion. Extracted data were synthesised using meta-aggregation.

Results

Five high quality studies (Qualsyst totals .80+) met inclusion criteria. All men had migrated to “Western” countries. One synthesised finding on help-seeking barriers was generated: African migrant men do not seek formal mental health help due to stigma and discrimination, a preference for religious treatment, structural barriers, and a perceived lack of cultural competency from health professionals.

Conclusions

Recommendations are presented. Further research and co-design will be important to understand facilitators and develop culturally appropriate, accessible assistance.

Key Points

What is already known about this topic:

1. Emigrants from African countries have very high rates of mental ill-health including anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder.

2. African migrant men may hold cultural beliefs about how men should behave and mental illness that act as barriers to formal mental health help-seeking in their new countries.

3. Despite their potentially unique needs, existing data on African migrant men’s own views of formal mental health help-seeking have not been synthesised.

What this topic adds:

1. This is the first meta-synthesis of African migrant men’s experiences and beliefs related to formal mental health help-seeking in their new countries.

2. Our study synthesises data from five studies to describe barriers to help-seeking in this population.

3. Based on the findings of this study, we make a series of practical recommendations to reduce barriers and facilitate help-seeking in this population. The limited number of studies also highlights the need for further research on this topic.

KEYWORDS:

• Africa
• help-seeking
• men
• mental health
• migrant
• qualitative

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

Data sharing is not applicable as no new data were created or analysed in this study.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.1080/00049530.2024.2347639.