Natalie Mastrogiovanni

@SabelIsaac Congrats Isaac this is amazing!

Happy to announce one of the studies from my PhD recently got published in JOPBA as an OA article 😁 Here, we piloted the use of written imagery rescripting to address discarding difficulties in a high hoarding sample. Read it here: rdcu.be/dVKAf

Help-seeking beliefs has received relatively little attention for its role in low treatment uptake amongst refugees. So, we developed and validated a novel scale of help-seeking beliefs. Excited to share that this work is officially published⤵️ journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/10…

#ISTSS2023 @ISTSSnews

Such a privilege to present a large focus of mine over the past 4 years at @ISTSS2023. Tell Your Story is an innovative intervention to reduce mental health stigma in refugees. We found support for its effectiveness using a RCT design. See comments for more details —>

These findings suggest that the intervention reduces stigma for those with higher PTSD symptoms, yet increases help-seeking regardless of symptoms. In other words, TYS seems to be encouraging people to speak about their difficulties in a community where it’s usually silenced.

From post intervention to 3 month follow up, participants in the Tell Your Story group spoke to more people (eg GP, psychologist, friend) about their emotional difficulties compared to the waitlist control group.

From pre to post intervention, participants in the Tell Your Story group demonstrated greater decreases in self-stigma related to symptoms and self-stigma related to help-seeking but only for those with higher PTSD symptoms.

A member of my research group shared this with me today - it’s inspiring to see refugee and migrant communities supporting important issues that shape Australia’s social and political context. It’s worth a watch

‘Tell Your Story’ is a free online program for #Arabic speakers from #refugee or #asylumseeker backgrounds. Participants will hear stories from people with a similar background to reduce mental health stigma and encourage confiding in others. bit.ly/3CgYIt5

The ‘PRISM’ Family research project aims to understand how missing and separated family affects refugees living in Australia. In collaboration with @RedCrossAU @ICRC, this project aims to learn more how people cope & what support is most helpful bit.ly/3Ce2tiK

Today is #worldrefugeeday2023, a moment where across the world we acknowledge the strength and courage of millions of people who have been forced to flee their home country to escape conflict or persecution.🧵1/3 @UNrefugees @Refugees

Stigma has a debilitating impact on refugee communities - exacerbating PTSD symptoms and preventing access to care. So, how can we reduce it? We identified mechanisms that might break the stigma cycle. An honour presenting this work @Wccbt2023