Mental health promotion among resettled Bhutanese adults in Massachusetts: Results of a peer‐led family‐centred Social and Emotional Well‐being (SEW) intervention study.

Family‐centred interventions addressing sociocultural and emotional stressors promise to prevent mental health problems among refugees in the United States. Peer‐led strategies are highly valued, as they engage communities and promote the sustainability of interventions. We assessed the effects of a peer‐led family‐centred Social and Emotional Well‐being (SEW) intervention on preventive (coping, social networking and conflict resolution) and mental health outcomes (stress, anxiety and depression) among resettled Bhutanese adults in Massachusetts. We conducted a SEW intervention with a pre‐intervention versus post‐intervention (7‐day) and follow‐up (3‐month) evaluation among 103 adults (50 families). The SEW is a culturally tailored 5‐weekly session program that included health education, problem‐solving and mind–body exercises to increase knowledge and skills regarding stress management and conflict resolution. We measured anxiety and depression using the Hopkins Symptom Checklist‐25 and stress using Cohen Perceived Stress scales. Health‐promoting behaviours were measured using validated scales. We used paired t‐tests for continuous and McNemar tests for categorical variables. Mean scores significantly decreased from pre‐intervention to post‐intervention and follow‐up for stress by 15% and 13.9%, anxiety by 20.9% and 25.1% and depression by 18.7% and 20.4% (all p's < 0.01). Mean scores increased from pre‐intervention to post‐intervention and follow‐up for coping by 10% and 17.2%, and for community networking by 28% and 36.8% (all p's < 0.01). Generalised estimating equations showed a significant reduction in stress, anxiety, depression and improved coping, self‐efficacy, family and community networking scored from baseline to follow‐ups (all p's < 0.01). Our peer‐led family‐centred SEW intervention was associated with improved preventive and mental health outcomes among Bhutanese adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]