Describe the Aspects of the Client's Sociocultural Environment That may be Contributing to their Depression and Anxiety:

At the time of the treatment, the client was a 29-year-old single woman. She is the primary caregiver of her 4-year-old son who she lives with. She was self-employed working part-time as a hair stylist at home; however, her main source of income was social assistance. Her highest level of education was completing high school. The client was a refugee originally from Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, a southern Caribbean nation. The client came to Canada in 2006, fleeing a physically abusive partner. She has no familial support in Canada and limited social supports.Sociocultural ContextIn St. Vincent, women are often extremely vulnerable to gender-based violence as many are economically dependent on their partners due to the high rate of unemployment among women (IWRAW, 2009). Moreover, reports of gender-based violence are often not taken seriously, leaving women susceptible to repeated incidents of violence (UQAM's International Clinic for the Defense of Human Rights, 2014). When seeking protection or justice for gender-based violence, women are faced with various barriers including a lack of institutions which provide specific services to this population including legal care, psychological support, and health services (UQAM's International Clinic for the Defense of Human Rights, 2014).Gender-based violence is reported around the world including Canada (Ansara & Hindin, 2010; Barrett et al., 2019) and St. Vincent (Yang, 2014). It is pervasive in St. Vincent as the patriarchal structure of society does not adequately address the issue of gender-based violence. Over the past 10 years, over 4,490 Vincentians (4% of the current population) have sought asylum in Canada, the majority being women (Yang, 2014). According to statistics composed by the UN Office of Drugs and Crime, there were 426 cases of sexual violence (rape and sexual assault) in St. Vincent in 2011 (Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada [IRBC], 2013). The rate of sexual violence in St. Vincent in 2011 was 289 cases per 100,000 people. In comparison, the rate of sexual violence in Canada was 77 cases per 100,000 in 2011 (IRBC, 2013). In March 2019, the Human Rights Committee confirmed this ongoing and serious concern in St. Vincent about high levels of violence especially against girls and women, as the state law does not recognize marital rape, and domestic violence seems to go unpunished and unreported (Centre for Civil and Political Rights, 2019). Scholars note that women who have experienced violence are often vulnerable and subject to mental health struggles such as depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD; De La Rue & Ortega, 2019).