• British medical bulletin · Jul 2020

    The mental health status of asylum seekers in middle- to high-income countries: a synthesis of current global evidence.

    • Miriam Posselt, Heather McIntyre, Mtho Ngcanga, Thomas Lines, and Nicholas Procter.
    • Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Research Group, Clinical and Health Sciences, The University of South Australia, Adelaide, SA 5001, Australia.
    • Br. Med. Bull. 2020 Jul 9; 134 (1): 4-20.

    IntroductionThe last 5 years have witnessed a significant increase in the number of people fleeing their countries of origin and seeking refuge in host countries. By the end of 2018, there were 3.5 million asylum seekers awaiting outcomes on their applications, the majority of whom were hosted by middle- to high-income countries. This review aimed to identify and synthesize current knowledge regarding the mental health status of asylum seekers in middle- to high-income countries.Sources Of DataA search was conducted across various databases for research literature published within the last 5 years (2014-2019). The final review and synthesis included 25 articles.Areas Of AgreementFindings highlighted significant differences in the mental health status of asylum seekers compared to those with refugee status and permanent residence.Areas Of ControversyGuidelines from the World Health Organization and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees emphasize the need to understand and address mental health issues. Instead, there have been policy changes in many host countries regarding asylum applications, and the associated effects of these changes have been shown to negatively impact mental health.Growing PointsThe synthesized findings from the present review provide information regarding the current mental health status of asylum seekers hosted by middle- to high-income countries. Areas of intervention and resource allocation were also identified.Areas Timely For Developing ResearchFuture research should consider the impact of large-scale, low-cost interventions to support the mental health of those seeking asylum.© The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

      Pubmed     Full text   Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…