Refugees and other New Americans faced unique mental health barriers before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Reduced access to mental health supports and services in this population indicates a need for new community-based mental health interventions.

This paper explored refugee parents’ and young adults’ perceptions of the mental health barriers and facilitators encountered by young resettled refugees (ages 10–24) and their parents.

Using an interpretive phenomenology approach and a form of community-based participatory research (CBPR), we designed a focus group guide with student community members from various refugee and immigrant communities. We held eight gender- and language-concordant focus groups with refugee parents, and four gender-concordant focus groups with refugee young adults (18–24), facilitated by student community members. Translated transcripts were analyzed for major themes using an iterative emergent thematic coding approach.

The conversations in these focus groups were wide-ranging. Here we explore the themes and subthemes that emerged in three primary areas: the effects of COVID-19 on mental health, mental health stigma and other social barriers to mental health, and community strengths and strategies for addressing mental health.

COVID-19 surfaced and intensified existing mental health challenges within resettled refugee communities. Community-based mental health interventions should be designed in partnership with the communities they aim to serve. The findings of this study suggest several possible intervention points to support refugee youth and parent mental health, including culturally sensitive group and individual therapy in a trusted community setting.