Mental health care needs, access and use among refugees and asylum seekers in Europe
Citation: Satinsky E, Fuhr DC, Woodward A, et al. Mental health care utilisation and access among refugees and asylum seekers in Europe: a systematic review. Health Policy. 2019;123(9):851-63.
Language: Abstract and full text available in EN.
Free to view: Yes
Funding sources: Not reported.
What is this? Information on the mental health needs of refugees and asylum seekers might be helpful to policy makers and practitioners trying to meet these needs.
In this systematic review, the authors searched for studies of mental health disorders and access to and use of mental health and psychosocial support services by refugees and asylum seekers in Europe. They restricted their searches to articles published in English between January 2007 and August 2017. They included 17 quantitative studies and 9 qualitative studies, from 18 European countries.
What was found: Refugees and asylum seekers are at higher risk of mental health disorders than host populations, but they substantially under-use mental health services.
Barriers in accessing care include language, lack of awareness of mental health disorders and services, negative attitude towards healthcare workers, help-seeking behaviour and stigma.
Implications: The authors of the review concluded that training healthcare providers on cultural models of mental illness may facilitate identification and referral of refugees and asylum seekers who need help to appropriate mental health services.
Other considerations: The authors of the review discussed their findings in the context of place of residence, culture/language and education.
This summary was prepared by Charlotte Flemming, edited by Sydney Johnson, Surya Ramachandran and finalized by Mike Clarke.