title: Family therapy sessions with refugee families; a qualitative study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Due to the armed conflicts in the Balkans in the 1990s many families escaped to other countries. The main goal of this study was to explore in more detail the complexity of various family members' experiences and perceptions from their life before the war, during the war and the escape, and during their new life in Sweden. There is insufficient knowledge of refugee families' perceptions, experiences and needs, and especially of the complexity of family perspectives and family systems. This study focused on three families from Bosnia and Herzegovina who came to Sweden and were granted permanent residence permits. The families had at least one child between 5 and 12 years old.
  
  
  METHODS
  Family therapy sessions were videotaped and verbatim transcriptions were made. Nine family therapy sessions were analysed using a qualitative method with directed content analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Three main categories and ten subcategories were found - 1. Everyday life at home, with two subcategories: The family, Work and School/preschool; 2. The influence of war on everyday life, with three subcategories: The war, The escape, Reflections; 3. The new life, with five subcategories: Employment, Health, Relatives and friends, Limited future, Transition to the new life.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Health care and social welfare professionals need to find out what kind of lives refugee families have lived before coming to a new country, in order to determine individual needs of support. In this study the families had lived ordinary lives in their country of origin, and after experiencing a war situation they escaped to a new country and started a new life. They had thoughts of a limited future but also hopes of getting jobs and taking care of themselves and their families. When analysing each person's point of view one must seek an all-embracing picture of a family and its complexity to tie together the family narrative. To offer refugee families meetings with family-oriented professionals to provide the opportunity to create a family narrative is recommended for the health and social welfare sector. Using this knowledge by emphasizing the salutogenic perspectives facilitates support to refugee families and individuals. This kind of support can help refugee families to adapt to a new system of society and recapture a sense of coherence, including all three components that lead to coherence: comprehensibility, manageability and meaningfulness. More studies are needed to further investigate the thoughts, experiences and needs of various refugee families and how refugee receiving societies can give the most effective support.
authors.affiliation: Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinic, University Hospital, Linköping, S 581 83, Sweden. Gunilla.Jarkman-Bjorn@lio.se.
authors.forename: Gunilla Jarkman
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Björn
authors.forename: Per A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Gustafsson
authors.forename: Gunilla
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Sydsjö
authors.forename: Carina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Berterö
references.citation: Child Adolesc Ment Health. 2011 Feb;16(1):55-59
references.pmid: 32847227
references.citation: J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 1999 Jun;38(6):723-30
references.pmid: 10361791
references.citation: Lakartidningen. 1993 Jun 16;90(24):2305-8
references.pmid: 8316005
references.citation: Qual Health Res. 2005 Nov;15(9):1277-88
references.pmid: 16204405
references.citation: Nord J Psychiatry. 2005;59(6):516-21
references.pmid: 16316907
references.citation: J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2006 Dec;47(12):1197-210
references.pmid: 17176375
references.citation: Acta Psychiatr Scand Suppl. 2011;(440):1-46
references.pmid: 21824118
references.citation: Int J Intercult Relat. 2012 Mar 1;36(2):260-270
references.pmid: 24510190
references.citation: Med Confl Surviv. 2007 Jul-Sep;23(3):198-212
references.pmid: 17822063
references.citation: Annu Rev Popul Law. 1989;16:95, 485-501
references.pmid: 12344587
references.citation: Clin Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2011 Oct;16(4):517-34
references.pmid: 21565870
references.citation: J Fam Nurs. 2007 Nov;13(4):461-83
references.pmid: 18180470
references.citation: Fam Process. 2004 Jun;43(2):147-60
references.pmid: 15603500
references.citation: Scand J Public Health. 2011 May;39(3):319-25
references.pmid: 21398334
references.citation: Nord J Psychiatry. 2011 Dec;65(6):389-95
references.pmid: 21417579
references.citation: J Adv Nurs. 2006 Sep;55(6):723-35
references.pmid: 16925621
references.citation: Confl Health. 2012 Jan 24;6(1):1
references.pmid: 22269339
references.citation: Clin Child Fam Psychol Rev. 2011 Mar;14(1):44-56
references.pmid: 21181268
references.citation: JAMA. 1993 Aug 4;270(5):581-6
references.pmid: 8331755
references.citation: Nurs Inq. 2002 Mar;9(1):52-6
references.pmid: 12164715
references.citation: J Trauma Stress. 1999 Jul;12(3):421-35
references.pmid: 10467553