Refugees and Mental Health

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Conditions Before Flight
Aftermath of Traumatic Episodes
Resettlement Challenges
References

Introduction

Many refugees flee their home countries due to insecurity, hunger and political persecution. Refugees experience traumatic episodes in their lives, which affect their mental health negatively.

They seek asylum in countries, which have favorable security and economic conditions, for them and their families. Refugees seek asylum in foreign countries to enable them rebuild their lives afresh (Jupp, 2003, p.159).

However, some refugees are affected mentally by the harrowing incidents they experience in their home countries before being resettled in new countries. This paper will show how poor mental health issues affect refugees before and after getting asylum.

Conditions Before Flight

Refugees go through various tragic events in their home countries, which affect their mental health. Papadopoulos (2001) reveals that the pre-flight period is characterized by anticipation and anxiety (p. 408). This is the period when signs of political violence begin manifesting in societies they live.

During this period, refugees are anxious about what is going to happen and how they will cope with the conflict. They are unable to carry out any meaningful economic activity because of rampant insecurity and political instability.

They witness tensions building up between rival groups, which makes them live in a state of fear and uncertainty.

They live their lives on the edge because they are unsure of what is going to happen to them and their families. This makes them more desperate and willing to compromise their values and dignity to survive.

As tensions in their home countries escalate, violence becomes widespread and many people are exposed to murder, sexual assault and general insecurity. These events affect refugees’ mental health severely. They are left at the mercy of well wishers who help them satisfy their basic needs.

War and other calamities cause separation of children with their parents, which makes such children vulnerable (Fazel & Stein, 2002, p. 368). These conflicts are a danger to the well being of children, as they get exposed to extreme incidents of violence and suffering.

This impacts negatively on their psychological growth. Children who get separated from their families are deprived of the care they need to grow positively.

These children have to fend for themselves at a very early age, which denies them an opportunity to go to school. In extreme cases, boys are used as soldiers while girls become sex slaves.

Aftermath of Traumatic Episodes

The large scale displacement of people by war and other civilian conflicts depresses many refugees. They are evicted from their homes unwillingly, which makes them get traumatized. They seek refuge in camps which do not have conducive conditions for human settlement.

They are forced to live in abject conditions characterized by overcrowding, poor hygiene, insufficient shelter and inadequate food supplies (Singh, 2005, p. 290). This makes it difficult for refugees to engage in beneficial activities, that can help them sustain themselves and their families.

All these factors exert a lot of pressure on refugees, which affects them psychologically. Procter (2005) reveals that refugees witness a lot of traumatic incidents, which affect the way they relate with other people (p. 198).

This makes some of them to lose trust in people and other social systems around them because of the suffering they have gone through.

Mental health problems in refugee populations make it hard for them to settle in countries they have migrated to. Some refugees may become timid and unfriendly to locals living in areas they have been resettled.

The severe psychological trauma they are exposed to makes it difficult for them to cope with social and cultural changes in areas they emigrate to. Refugees also face other forms of difficulties such as unemployment, inadequate housing, cultural differences and xenophobic prejudices.

These factors make them resent their new homes because they feel that locals in these societies are not willing to accommodate them. Silove (2002) states that some refugees start recollecting past traumatic events, which impact negatively on their progress ( p. 291).

Some refugees have difficulties in dealing with emotional grief due to the deaths of their close family members and friends. They do not get enough opportunities to deal with their tragic past.

Resettlement Challenges

Refugees who have been resettled in new countries have difficulties in accepting their new status in life. Some have to deal with the loss of their socio-economic status after being resettled, which makes them get depressed.

Many refugees lose a lot of property in their home countries due to destruction and looting. Other refugees use a lot of resources to escape suffering and deprivation in their home countries (Davidson, Murray & Schweitzer, 2008, p. 165).

This makes them lack money to sustain themselves in their new countries. They feel that they have nothing to live for and this makes it difficult for them to move on from past tragic episodes. They are not psychologically prepared to accept new realities they are facing after their resettlement.

Therefore, the difficulties they face in adapting to new changes affect them psychologically. Refugees need to be taken through effective counselling programs to help them deal with past traumatic experiences.

Refugees need to be helped to cope with cultural changes they encounter after moving to new countries. This will make them better prepared to accept incidents, which have happened to them in the past, to enable them move on with their lives.

Host countries need to encourage refugees to rebuild their lives by offering them employment and educational opportunities. Refugees need to be encouraged to advance their education to enable them acquire vital skills to help them build successful careers.

Refugees need to be welcomed by locals in societies they have settled to make them feel safe (Neumann, 2004, p. 89). This will make them deal with tragic episodes they have faced in the past easily.

They need to be encouraged to unite with host communities to make it easy for them to fit in. This will help them learn new ideals which are important for their psychological and emotional growth.

In conclusion. refugees need to develop associations, which cater for their welfare. These associations will help new refugees to settle easily in new areas they emigrate to.

Refugees who have mental and psychological problems can be offered urgent medical help to enable them cope with their problems effectively.

They need to create more time for other social activities to help them adapt to the new social environment.

They need to be assisted to reunite with their families, to help them deal with the trauma of loss and separation more effectively. This will encourage them to embrace new changes positively for their own benefit.

References

Davidson, G. R., Murray, K. E., & Schweitzer, R. (2008). Review of refugee mental health and wellbeing : Australian perspectives. Australian Psychologist, 43 (3), 160-174.

Fazel, M. & Stein A. (2002). The mental health of refugee children. Archives of Diseases in Childhood, 87, 366-370.

Jupp, J. (2003). Refugees and asylum seekers as victims: The Australian case. International Review of Victimology, 10 (2), 157-175.

Neumann, K. (2004). Refuge Australia: Australia’s humanitarian record. Sydney, NSW: University of New South Wales.

Papadopoulos, R. K. (2001). Refugee families: issues of systemic supervision. Journal of Family Therapy, 23, 405-422.

Procter, N. G. (2005). Emergency mental health nursing for self-harming refugees and asylum seekers. International Journal of Mental Health Nursing, 14 (3), 196-201.

Silove, D. (2002). The asylum debacle in Australia: A challenge for psychiatry. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry,36 (3), 290-296.

Singh, R. (2005). Therapeutic skills for working with refugee families: An introductory course at the institute of family therapy. Journal of Family Therapy, 27, 289-292.

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