In 2002, over 110 000 people entered Britain to seek asylum—a 250% increase in five years. Children, who comprise at least a quarter of asylum seekers, are exposed to numerous risk factors for psychological disturbance, including exposure to violence, forced displacement, and multiple losses. 2 The rates of mental health problems in refugee children are uncertain, but the few studies that have ...

Background: Accurate data on the health status, health behaviour and access to health care of asylum seekers is essential, but such data is lacking in many European countries. We hence aimed to: (a) develop and pilot-test an instrument that can be used to compare and benchmark the country health information systems (HIS) with respect to the ability to assess the health status and health care si...

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to evaluate the extent of Activities of Daily Living (ADL) ability impairment in newly arrived Danish asylum seekers. It was hypothesized that exposure to trauma and torture would negatively influence ADL performance and that measures of ADL ability would be lower in individuals exposed to torture as compared to the non-tortured. SUBJECTS Forty-three newly ...

OBJECTIVE To document the psychiatric status of a near complete sample of children and their families from one ethnic group held for an extended period of time in a remote immigration detention facility in Australia. METHOD Structured psychiatric interviews were administered by three same-language speaking psychologists by phone to assess the lifetime and current psychiatric disorders among 1...

The number of people seeking refugee status in Ireland is increasing year on year and the burden of mental illness experienced by refugees and asylum seekers is high. The College of Psychiatrists of Ireland has recommended the establishment of a number of specialist refugee mental health teams. In this paper we discuss the Irish asylum system, the Irish evidence regarding mental illness in this...