Waganesh Zeleke
Assistant Professor
Title: Mental Health and Somatic Distress among Ethiopian Migrant Returnees from the Middle East
Biography
Biography: Waganesh Zeleke
Abstract
Mental health and psychosocial distress are frequent among people who have faced adversity, such as exposure to abuse, exploitation, loss, displacement, and human trafficking. Returned Migrants are the most vulunurable population for such adversities, especially whenthey work in under-regulated sectors such as domestic work entered trhough illegal migration. Addressing the mental health issues of returnees has to be a cross-cutting activitiy of any migrantion-crisis intervention. However, Knowledge about the frequencey, severyity, and risk factors as they affect migrants’ mental helath in Ethiopian is limited at best. Hence, this study aimed to examine the mental helath and somatic distress among migrant returnee population in Ethiopia. In a sample of 1,035 returnee migrnats, data were collected on the mental distress based on SRQ-20 and somatic distress based on PHQ-15. A descriptive stastics correlation, t-test and factorial MANAOVA analysis were run to determin the distress status and the relationship between different variables. Using a cut of point8, 26.08% of the sample was considered to be a probable case (n=270), with females endorsing more items than males. Twent-thrity percent (11.7% Mild,; 8.2% Moderate; and 3% sever) of the particapnts reported somatic manifestation of psychological distress. A signfciant relationship is found between particpants’ mental helath distress and somatic psycholgical distress. Religious affilation and ethnicity are found to be associated with menal health distress, while gender and education are found to be signficantly assoicated wiht somatic psycholgical distress. Recommondation and future dierection are forwarded based on the results of the study.