New Roots smartphone app aims to help refugees feel at home in Australia

When refugees arrive in Australia, everything is unfamiliar. The people, the language and the weather may all come as a shock, but one thing is probably universal: The smartphone.

Settlement Services International (SSI), an organisation that supports refugees, has worked with mental health initiative Beyondblue, using funds from Movember, to develop an app called New Roots that aims to support male refugees who have received shelter in Australia.

SSI sees hundreds of refugees a year, and the organisation realised there were a number of stress factors people experienced as they got used to a new country, SSI CEO Violet Roumeliotis told Mashable Australia. Men were particularly at risk, she said, as they were less likely to seek help for mental health or wellbeing problems than women. Read more...