Funding outcome

Refugee children and youth (ages 12-18) face compounding mental health challenges from trauma, displacement, cultural adjustment, and intergenerational tensions within families. Many experience anxiety, depression, or post-traumatic stress, and face barriers to timely, appropriate health and psychosocial care due to stigma and limited culturally responsive services. To reduce barriers, community health centres play a vital role in delivering trauma informed, culturally safe care for newcomer populations; however, the specific mental health needs, service experiences, and care pathways of refugee children and youth, including how these vary by sex, gender, age, and ethnicity, remain underexplored. The goal of this study is to provide a better understanding of the mental health needs of refugee children and youth and how their experiences, such as trauma, family dynamics, and gender roles, affect their mental wellbeing and use of services. Using electronic medical records (EMR) from the New Canadians Health Centre (NCHC) in Edmonton and interviews with children, youth, families, and care providers, the study will identify patterns in need, service use and experiences. Sex and Gender Based Analysis Plus (SGBA+) will be applied to assess how factors such as age, gender identity, and ethnicity shape these experiences. Findings will inform culturally appropriate mental health interventions for children and youth at the NCHC and similar community health centres. By integrating youth and family perspectives with clinical data, this research aims to improve outcomes for newcomer children and youth and build more equitable, accessible mental health services in Canada.