The contemporary refugee crisis: an overview of mental health challenges
This paper considers contemporary issues in the refugee mental health field, including developments in research, conceptual models, social and psychological interventions, and policy. Prevalence data yielded by cross sectional epidemiological studies do not allow a clear distinction to be made between situational forms of distress and frank mental disorder, a shortcoming that may be addressed by longitudinal studies (WPA).
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5428192/
Responding to children and adolescents who have been sexually abused: WHO clinical guidelines
This guideline provides recommendations aimed primarily at front-line health-care providers (e.g. general practitioners, nurses, paediatricians, gynaecologists) providing care to children, including adolescents up to the age of 18 years, who have, or may have, experienced sexual abuse, including sexual assault or rape. It can also be useful for other cadres of specialist healthcare providers who are likely to see children or adolescents.
http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/259270/1/9789241550147-eng.pdf?ua=1
Identifying and Responding to Urban Refugees Risks of Gender-Based Violence Men and Boys, Including Male Survivors
Throughout 2015, WRC conducted a research in urban settings, the first phase of a multi-year project to improve the humanitarian communitys understanding of and response to GBV risks in urban contexts. Quito, Ecuador; Beirut, Lebanon; Kampala, Uganda; and Delhi, India, were chosen because they are host to diverse refugee populations, have different policy environments for refugees, and are at different stages of humanitarian response. The project looked separately at the GBV risks of different urban refugee subpopulations: women; children and adolescents; LGBTI individuals; persons with disabilities; and male survivors of sexual violence.
https://www.womensrefugeecommission.org/gbv/resources/document/download/1285
Canadian Center for Victims of Torture (CCVT)
Is a non-profit, founded by several Toronto doctors, lawyers and social service professionals, many of whom were associated with Amnesty International.The CCVT was incorporated in 1983 as the Canadian Centre for the Investigation and Prevention of Torture. The name was changed in 1988 to better reflect the Centre’s mandate. The Centre was the second such facility in the world to be established. The first was in Copenhagen in 1982. In 2003, CCVT was accredited to the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims (IRCT).
Family therapy sessions with refugee families; a qualitative study
Due to the armed conflicts in the Balkans in the 1990s many families escaped to other countries. The main goal of this study was to explore in more detail the complexity of various family members experiences and perceptions from their life before the war, during the war and the escape, and during their new life in Sweden. There is insufficient knowledge of refugee families perceptions, experiences and needs, and especially of the complexity of family perspectives and family systems. This study focused on three families from Bosnia and Herzegovina who came to Sweden and were granted permanent residence permits. The families had at least one child between 5 and 12 years old.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3617022/
Nightmares in Jalazone: Families deal with trauma following Israeli torture
To understand psychiatric home visits in Palestine necessitates forgoing Western assumptions about patient confidentiality, privacy, and timeliness. Though individual patients often refer themselves to treatment centers after a release from prison, the difficulty of traveling to and from major cities requires therapists to make home visits. Families then participate in the session as a group, thereby coming to better understand their family members situation and relieving some of their own symptoms as well.
http://mondoweiss.net/2015/12/nightmares-families-following/
Evaluating Asylum Seekers: An Interview with Dr. Arno Vosk
In the third installment of Evaluating Asylum Seekers, Sampsonia Way speaks to Dr. Arno Vosk, an advisor to a medical student clinic at the University of Pennsylvania. I find it incredible that people who have endured such suffering in their home countries should find it so difficult to get refuge in the United States.
SPIRASI
SPIRASI is a humanitarian, intercultural, non-governmental organisation that works with asylum seekers, refugees and other disadvantaged migrant groups, with special concern for survivors of torture. In partnership with others, SPIRASI enables access to specialist services to promote the well-being of the human person, and encourages self-reliance and integration into Ireland.
The Asylum-seeking Child in Europe
Children constitute an important part of asylum seekers whether they arrive With their families or alone. In 2003, there were more than 17 million refugees (43 per cent of refugees), asylum seekers and others who are of concern to the UNHCR. Of these millions of people, it is estimated that children under the age of five make up 11 per cent and 32 per cent are children aged six to seventeen. Many of these children have experienced war, violence, acts of cruelty and similar traumas. Others have been exposed indirectly through their parents traumatizing experiences. Such experiences are today increasingly recognized as being a similar burden to a child as if they are assaulted themselves. The adults often have very big problems and the children run the risk of having their problems concealed. Registration data and statistics are generally not produced in a way that makes the exposed situation of children visible. The childrens reasons for asylum in their own right are rarely investigated.
http://www.gu.se/digitalAssets/1362/1362497_asylum-seeking-child.pdf
Report of the parliamentary inquiry into asylum support for children and young people
The inquiry into asylum support for children and young people received written submissions and heard oral evidence from over 200 individuals and organisations, including local authorities, safeguarding boards and academics. The panel considered perspectives from health, poverty, housing, well-being and asylum support experts, and heard directly from families with experience of living on asylum support. The evidence shows that the current asylum support system is in urgent need of reform if it is to have regard to the safety and wellbeing of children and meet its obligations to promote children’s best interests
http://www.childrenssociety.org.uk/sites/default/files/tcs/asylum_support_inquiry_report_final.pdf