Research is needed to inform or identify interventions that diminish the impact of barriers to care, and identify from whom, where, and how professional mental health help might be more effectively offered to injured Black men in recovery environments like Philadelphia.

Introduction: Public health investigations, including research, in refugee populations are necessary to inform evidence-based interventions and care. The unique challenges refugees face (displacement, limited political protections, economic hardship) can make them especially vulnerable to harm, burden, or undue influence. Acute survival needs, fear of stigma or persecution, and history of trauma may present challenges to ensuring meaningful informed consent and establishing trust. We examined the recently published literature to understand the application of ethics principles in investigations involving refugees. Methods: We conducted a preliminary review of refugee health literature (research and non-research data collections) published from 2015 through 2018 available in PubMed. Article inclusion criteria were: participants were refugees, topic was health-related, and methods used primary data collection. Information regarding type of investigation, methods, and reported ethics considerations was abstracted. Results: We examined 288 articles. Results indicated 33% of investigations were conducted before resettlement, during the displacement period (68% of these were in refugee camps). Common topics included mental health (48%) and healthcare access (8%). The majority (87%) of investigations obtained consent. Incentives were provided less frequently (23%). Most authors discussed the ways in which community stakeholders were engaged (91%), yet few noted whether refugee representatives had an opportunity to review investigational protocols (8%). Cultural considerations were generally limited to gender and religious norms, and 13% mentioned providing some form of post-investigation support.

Emotional responses can differ by intentionality of traumatic injury among urban Black men. Intentional injuries may be a marker for chronic exposure to violence and limited social support for recovery. Additional resources should be targeted to survivors of intentional injury who return to disadvantaged communities after medical treatment to decrease risk of re-traumatization and adverse emotional responses.

Many Black men suffer symptoms of traumatic stress in the aftermath of traumatic injury, and they also often carry social concerns, including experiences of discrimination and stigma, and a lack of financial resources. The objective of the present study was to understand how traumatic symptoms and social factors combine in complex ways toward the outcome of psychological help‐seeking. We analyzed qualitative and quantitative data from 32 injured Black men admitted to a Level 1 trauma center. Qualitative interviews explored their attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help. We analyzed quantitative data, collected using validated instruments, on posttraumatic stress and depression symptoms, financial worry, and discrimination/stigma. Fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) was conducted by calibrating each condition to fuzzy set membership scores based on our knowledge of the causal conditions and the cases. We then constructed truth tables for QCA analysis using fsQCA software. Three causal pathways for psychological help‐seeking were identified: Two pathways showed that severe trauma symptoms in the absence of financial worry were sufficient for seeking help, whereas the third showed that financial worry and discrimination in the absence of trauma symptoms were sufficient for help‐seeking. We identified two causal pathways for negated help‐seeking, in which low posttraumatic symptom severity and low levels of discrimination or financial worry were sufficient for not seeking psychological help. The QCA analysis revealed multiple pathways for psychological help‐seeking among Black men who suffer trauma. These findings highlight the need for further research to understand complex pathways toward psychological help‐seeking in this population.