10th Biennial ACSPRI Social Science Methodology Conference in conjunction with the Australian Social Network Analysis Conference (ASNAC)

Migrant, refugee and asylum-seeking women experience mental wellbeing and service navigation within complex social fields shaped by migration histories, gendered expectations, language, socioeconomic pressures, cultural difference, family responsibilities and particularities of local health and social services. In South-West Sydney, these determinants intersect with high cultural and linguistic diversity and concentrated socioeconomic inequities in access to appropriate mental health supports. The Care Navigation for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CaNCALD) Women’s Project is a place-based, participatory action research project that centres the knowledge and lived experience of women, community members and service providers. It seeks to understand how women experiencing mental health concerns navigate community, social and health systems that shape their wellbeing, identify community assets that already sustain wellbeing, and inform co-designed responses that strengthen person-centred and culturally responsive systems.

This paper presents preliminary findings from a social network mapping analysis embedded in the project’s first phase. For this phase, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 23 migrant, refugee and/or asylum-seeking women with lived experience of mental health concerns, as well as with 29 health and service providers, and community leaders in South-West Sydney. Interview data were first examined through social determinants of mental health, assets-based community development and actor-network theory lenses. Social network analysis was used to map the dynamic and interconnected system of factors affecting women’s mental wellbeing and navigation of community, social and health systems, and then overlayed with an Action Scales Model (ASM) to identify leverage areas for intervention. Adopting the four ASM classifications of ‘events’, ‘structures’, ‘goals’ and ‘beliefs’ helps locate these issues within wider patterns of relationships, resource flows, service expectations and norms, enabling us to identify leverage points for intervention at multiple levels.

Cutting through the vast complexity of factors and data, social network analysis made visible the actors and connections shaping women’s navigation journeys at different scales. Preliminary analysis suggests that women’s navigation of community, social and health systems is not organised around a single pathway, but through a dispersed and relational network of structural factors and interpersonal supports. Housing stress, income insecurity, family and caring responsibilities, trauma, English proficiency, service complexity and perceptions of safety shape not only women’s wellbeing, but also the pathways through which support becomes visible, trusted and reachable. At the same time, the network reveals important assets, including culturally grounded community spaces, women’s groups, practical assistance, informal interpreting and accompaniment, and relationships with workers who bridge community and service systems. Overlaying the ASM onto the social network map helps distinguish prominent service-navigation issues from the deeper structures, goals and beliefs that sustain them.

These preliminary findings helped inform the second and third phases of this participatory research project. They provide rich information for a co-design team of women (including community members and service providers) to design, prototype, and test pilot interventions that improve how migrant, refugee and asylum-seeking women experiencing mental health concerns navigate community, social and health systems. From analysis to action, this presentation invites reflection on how social network mapping is a useful methodology for participatory, place-based mental health equity work by illuminating the vulnerabilities and strengths in the systems that women navigate.