{"id":35344,"date":"2015-02-12T14:40:05","date_gmt":"2015-02-12T19:40:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/?p=35344"},"modified":"2015-02-12T14:40:05","modified_gmt":"2015-02-12T19:40:05","slug":"master-of-public-health-student-from-somalia-focuses-research-on-mental-health-of-immigrant-women","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2015\/02\/12\/master-of-public-health-student-from-somalia-focuses-research-on-mental-health-of-immigrant-women\/","title":{"rendered":"Master of Public Health student from Somalia focuses research on mental health of immigrant women"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Somalia<\/a>Soon after Fartun Yussuf was born, her native country of Somalia dissolved into civil war. By the time she was 3 years old, her family had left the war-torn nation and immigrated to the United States in search of a better life.<\/p>\n

Now in graduate school at the Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine<\/a>, Yussuf is pursuing a Master of Public Health degree and is drawing upon her own cross-cultural experience as she researches the mental health of immigrant women.<\/p>\n

In 1993, Yussuf and her family fled Somalia and eventually settled in Columbus, Ohio. Because she was so young when her family left, she doesn\u2019t really remember much about Somalia.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt times, I am grateful for this. I don\u2019t have to deal with the emotional scars that come from going through a civil war,\u201d said Yussuf, who is the oldest of six children. \u201cYet it\u2019s frustrating, because Somalia was my home. I don\u2019t have any memories.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yussuf grew up in Columbus, where her father runs a small ethnic grocery store and her mother works part time at a production and distribution warehouse.<\/p>\n

She was the first person in her immediate family to go to college and the only one to go to graduate school. As an undergraduate at The Ohio State University, she majored in psychology but realized the field was not for her.<\/p>\n

\u201cI loved my psychology classes,\u201d Yussuf said. \u201cBut after working in a depression lab coding therapy sessions, I knew it wasn\u2019t for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yussuf explored several health-related careers and considered becoming a sonographer or a physician assistant. But after shadowing for a few days, she realized those fields were not a fit. A job at a nursing home as a nurse aide opened her eyes to the possibility of a career in public health.<\/p>\n

\u201cSpending time with the nursing home residents helped me realize that I am passionate about advocating for the health of underserved populations,\u201d she said. \u201cAfter a lot of research, I realized that I was interested in public health.\u201d<\/p>\n

She shadowed at Columbus Public Health and fell in love with the field. \u201cAfter spending a day there, I knew I had found my career,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Yussuf met Hibo Noor, a 2012 graduate of the Wright State Boonshoft School of Medicine Master of Public Health Program<\/a>. She encouraged Yussuf to look into the Wright State program.<\/p>\n

After hearing about Noor\u2019s experience and learning more about the Master of Public Health Program, Yussuf knew she wanted to go to Wright State to pursue her M.P.H. degree.<\/p>\n

She hasn\u2019t regretted her decision. \u201cThe faculty and staff are some of the kindest and most supportive people,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

As part of the Master of Public Health Program practice placement, she was an honorary research assistant at Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine at Queen Mary University of London. She spent five weeks learning research methods and conducting a literature review. She researched the mental health of immigrants, especially immigrant women during and after immigration.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were curious to find out what was it about being an immigrant woman that made someone more likely to experience a mental health issue,\u201d she said. \u201cWas there anything that could be done to prevent this?\u201d<\/p>\n

She has continued her work on the literature review, focusing on the mental health of immigrants and refugee women for her culminating experience \u2014 the final research paper in the program.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have learned that there are often many overlapping factors that affect the mental health of immigrant women,\u201d Yussuf said.<\/p>\n

Acculturation, or assimilation, is a factor that is unique to immigrants, she said. It affects mental health in both positive and negative ways.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe degree of acculturation to the host society has to be balanced,\u201d said Yussuf, who plans to publish a paper about her research. \u201cToo much acculturation leads to identity and family and cultural issues. Not enough acculturation leaves immigrants dealing with isolation, perceived discrimination and limited language ability.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yussuf\u2019s advisor, Cristina Redko praised her research.<\/p>\n

\u201cHer tenacity coupled with her extensive cross-cultural experience and sensibility transform her into an excellent candidate to work with the public health of underserved populations,\u201d said Redko, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Community Health and global health director in the Master of Public Health Program.<\/p>\n

Yussuf plans to graduate in the summer and is applying to different positions in local and global health organizations to work with underserved populations. Eventually, she would like to return to Somalia to set up regional public health departments there and in other resource-poor nations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fartun Yussuf, a Boonshoft School of Medicine graduate student and native of Somalia, draws on her own cross-cultural experience as she researches the mental health of immigrant women. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":34213,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[722,2060,725,2046,2130,2016,715,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academics","category-graduate","category-home-news-sidebar","category-international-students","category-public-health","category-medicine","category-news","category-research"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35344"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35344\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35349,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35344\/revisions\/35349"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}