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The mental health needs of asylum seekers and refugees – challenges and solutions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Piyal Sen
Piyal Sen*
Affiliation:
Complex Needs Service, St Andrew's, Essex, UK Department of Forensic and Neurodevelopmental Sciences, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, UK, email [email protected]
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Global events like wars and natural disasters have led to the refugee population reaching numbers not seen since the Second World War. Attitudes to asylum have hardened, with the potential to compromise the mental health needs of asylum seekers and refugees. The challenges in providing mental healthcare for asylum seekers and refugees include working with the uncertainties of immigration status and cultural differences. Ways to meet the challenges include cultural competency training, availability of interpreters and cultural brokers as well as appropriately adapting modes of therapy. Service delivery should support adjustment to life in a foreign country. Never has the need been greater for psychiatrists to play a leadership role in the area.

Type
Thematic Paper
Information
BJPsych International , Volume 13 , Issue 2 , May 2016 , pp. 30 - 32
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists 2016

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