Asylum seekers are five times more likely to have mental health needs than the general population and more than 61% percent will experience severe mental health distress. Yet, they are less likely to seek help than the rest of the population - Why is this?
Since the European migrant crisis, issues of mental health require a more critical examination not just for the well being of the asylum seekers but for the integrity of the processing framework itself. A considerable amount of asylum seekers experience the ill effects of conditions such as depression and post traumatic stress disorder having survived through horrendous events before they set off for their journey, en route or both. In spite of the fact that asylum law in the European Union acknowledges the significance of giving emotional well-being care, practically speaking, individual Member States have struggled to identify and treat these conditions.
As mentioned, asylum seekers often encounter trauma before, during and after their journeys. At the point when they arrive at their destinations, significant stretches of time spent in overcrowded and often intimidating reception offices can add a new worry to a previously difficult encounter as can an absence of positive thinking about what's to come. Not only do the physical living conditions burden an individual, often their mental health conditions can actually inhibit their ability to adequately present their claims for asylum. People who experience PTSD and similar illnesses frequently experiences issues when recalling difficult and violent situations and to recount them in a manner that seems believable to the asylum officer is often an immense psychological strain.
Despite this, there is still a significant absence of information and research on the effect of mental health issues when one undergoes the process of claiming asylum within the European Union.
The troubles faced by numerous asylum seekers on their approach to safety may outperform the difficult encounters back home. The validity appraisal is a key part of the refuge procedure, wherein asylum seekers are required to demonstrate the presence of a well-established dread of mistreatment if they were to ever return to their country of origin, in light of any of the grounds recommended by law. However, for an asylum officer who requires as much background information for an application, which is usually supposed to be acquired in a short amount of time, are again often insufficient in accommodating the potential impacts of mental health issues. For example, the impacts of dissociative symptoms which are often activated by psychological trauma include memory loss, emotional unavailability or a distorted perception of how specific event or circumstances actually played out. This undoubtedly affects the way one can tell their story and making a claim thus resulting in challenges for officers in evaluating the authenticity of events.
Unfortunately, mental health and the well being of asylum seekers is often not given the priority and attention it needs within communities and social spheres. Instead, navigating the foreign social and economic spaces are given the utmost importance in place of mental health. For example, The Council of Somali Organisation voiced the general sentiment amongst Somalis, who fled civil war and violence and have lived in the UK for many years, that current mental health services cater more towards mainstream British people which are fundamentally built on different principles to the ones they know and value. Therefore, it is of very little use when treating mental conditions within the community. There is currently little being done by the NHS to improve the medical literacy amongst not just the Somali community but refugees in general.
Despite the shared pain amongst the Somali community, many still experience the bitterness of unresolved trauma. Survival is what drove them out of their homes and this survival instinct supersedes the need to deal with the trauma and hardship that they have experienced. This very instinct kept them alive and their emphasis is often placed on looking ahead and building a future for oneself. The NHS mental health and well being services, which is mainly directed to those who have recently achieved asylum status, have lacked to consider the benefits of targeting those asylum seekers who have are already settled within the U.K.
At the moment, it ignores the fruitful dynamics that a safe space to discuss trauma or medicate trauma could be for not just individuals but communities as well.
Written by Nuzhah Miah, January 2020.
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