[Symposium 63] Rethinking Mental Health Support for Refugees

[SY-63] Rethinking Mental Health Support for Refugees

UKAWA Ko¹, Hans J.G.B.M. Rohlof², Mario Braakman³, Simon Groen⁴, Valerie DeMarinis⁵, Claudia Blankenstijn⁶ (1.Taisho University(Japan), 2.Mental Care Center(Netherlands), 3.Tilburg University(Netherlands), 4.De Evenaar Center for Transcultural Psychiatry(Netherlands), 5.Umeå University (Medical School)(Sweden), 6.linguist(Netherlands))

Keywords:

Refugees,Trauma,Mental Health Care

Refugees experience things they never imagined during their exodus from their home country and their life in the host country. They experience traumatic events in their home country, experience various losses in the process of becoming refugees, and are forced to resettle in a country with a completely different society, language, and culture. These events are stressful and significantly impact their physical and mental health. Although refugee psychosis does not exist, refugees are prone to mental illnesses such as PTSD due to two factors: (1) the process of becoming a refugee and (2) migration and adaptation. Also, as with immigrants, this illness behavior is strongly influenced by the cultural factors and norms of each ethnic group. This symposium will focus on the trauma that is often experienced during the process of becoming a refugee and will provide an opportunity to learn from the forerunners in the psychiatric treatment of refugees, including the following: (1) Treatment planning from a process-oriented perspective in the refugee experience, (2) Tensions between cultural and personal situations of grief, and (3) New treatments in refugee mental health, such as support for improving self-engagement and the use of games to treat trauma. The number of refugees will continue to grow worldwide. The latest findings in Europe will lead to a review of mental health care for refugees.