Seeking Asylum And Mental Health

People seeking asylum face unique challenges and frequently experience mental health problems. Effective support requires an understanding of their mental health needs in the broader context of their lives, cultures and extreme experiences. This book provides practical guidance for professionals and services working with people seeking asylum in mental health, social care, legal, government. managerial and commissioning roles. With authors from a wide range of professional backgrounds, the book is enriched by accounts from people with first hand experience of the asylum system itself. It considers the challenges and dilemmas faced by all involved, including clients, clinicians and service planners, with a wealth of practical information about how to assess and understand strengths and needs, avoid inappropriate conclusions and discrimination, consider treatment options, and write records and reports. The authors emphasise that effective support depends on reflection, humanity and compassion. The book is a must-have resource for professionals working with those who have to seek asylum.

This comprehensive reference book provides both background information and practical, clinical advice on all areas of nutrition for the cancer patient at all stages of their disease trajectory.

This book provides an overview of recent trends in the management of trauma and post-traumatic stress disorders that may ensue from distressing experiences associated with the process of migration. Although the symptoms induced by trauma are common to all cultures, their specific meaning and the strategies used to deal with them may be culture-specific. Consequently, cultural factors can play an important role in the diagnosis and treatment of individuals with psychological reactions to extreme stress. This role is examined in detail, with an emphasis on the need for therapists to bear in mind that different cultures often have different concepts of health and disease and that cross-cultural communication is therefore essential in ensuring effective care of the immigrant patient. The therapist’s own intercultural skills are highlighted as being an important factor in the success of any treatment and specific care contexts and the global perspective are also discussed.

A practical guide for professionals and services supporting people seeking asylum, which explores their distinctive mental health needs.

Asylum medicine, a field encompassing medical forensic evaluations of asylum seekers, is an emerging discipline in healthcare. In a time of record global displacement due to human rights violations, conflict and persecution, interest in the medical and psychological evaluation of individuals subjected to torture and other ill-treatment is high. Health professionals are uniquely qualified to use their skills to make contributions to a group of vulnerable individuals fleeing danger and death in their home countries. Health professionals involved in asylum medicine perform medical and psychological forensic evaluations of asylum seekers. Their educational background prepares them to examine and describe physical and emotional scars related to trauma, and further training allows them to assess these scars in the context of persecution, describe them in a medical-legal affidavit and support these findings with testimony. Providers of asylum medicine are often involved in advocacy, as many governments become increasingly hostile to asylum seekers. Books on human rights exist, but there is no authoritative text of asylum medicine. This book presents a comprehensive overview of asylum medicine, with emphasis on the historical and legal background of asylum law, best practices for performing asylum examinations, challenges of examining detained asylum seekers, education of trainees and advocacy. Written by experts in the field, Asylum Medicine: A Clinician's Guide is a first of its kind resource for health care providers who practice asylum medicine.

"The Psychiatric Evaluation and Treatment of Refugees is a cutting-edge volume of contributions that help mental health professionals better understand the outcomes and solutions for the complicated mix of trauma and immigration with culture and worldview found in the treatment of refugee patients. Written by experts in cross-cultural psychiatry, the book holds a balance between up-to-date science and the collective experiential wisdom of the Intercultural Psychiatric Program at the Oregon Health & Science University, providing a key reference for psychiatrists and other mental health professionals working in cross-cultural trauma. The editors and authors of this volume have contributed to an understanding of the blend of necessary science/evidence and compassion that gives mental health providers insight as to how to understand and treat these often traumatized patients"--

Mental health problems among asylum seekers and refugees are becoming a public issue, but awareness of this problem among the mental health community is relatively low. Although advances have been made in the provision of innovative mental health services for asylum seekers and refuges with PTSD, they are not systemized, and not widely known to professionals in the field. A publication offering practical guidelines for the treatment of torture victims and political refugees does not exist. Broken Spirits aims to bring together the works of the most respected mental health professionals - from the U.S. and abroad - and make available the most current knowledge on complex PTSD, forced migration and cultural sensitivity in diagnosis and treatment.

This book provides a framework to guide mental health providers who work with refugees and immigrants. Nearly 70 million people today are refugees or forcibly-displaced migrants. More than half of them are children suffering from the effects of dislocation and violence. The authors describe the unique needs and challenges of serving these populations, and offer concrete steps for providing evidence-based, culturally-responsive care. Using the socioecological model, the authors conceptualize the developing child as living within concentric circles that include family, school, neighborhood, and society, embedded within a cultural context. Mental health providers identify and provide targeted support to combat disruptions within any or all of these ecological layers. Chapters examine the complex ways in which culture impacts the refugee experience, barriers to engagement in mental health practice and strategies for overcoming them, assessment, collaborative and integrated mental health interventions, and efforts to increase resilience in children, families, and communities. The book is an essential guide for mental health providers, and all who seek to help children in need.