[Symposium 65] Assessment and care for asylum seekers with severe mental health problems

[SY-65] Assessment and care for asylum seekers with severe mental health problems

Seline van den Ameele^1,2, Lukas Claus^2,3, Laura Van de Vliet^5,3, Sofie Vindevogel⁴ (1.Department of Psychiatry and Medical Psychology, University Hospital Brugmann, Brussels(Belgium), 2.Collaborative Antwerp Psychiatric Research Institute (CAPRI), Antwerp University, Antwerp(Belgium), 3.Psychiatric Hospital Sint-Alexius, Brothers of Charity, Grimbergen(Belgium), 4.EQUALITY ResearchCollective, University of Applied Sciences and Arts HOGENT, Ghent(Belgium), 5.POZAH, Psychiatric Care for Asylum Seekers, Sint-Alexius, Grimbergen(Belgium))

Keywords:

Cultural psychiatry,Asylum seekers,Cultural Formulation,Explanatory models,Mental health care

As of mid-2024, 122 million people were forcibly displaced globally, including 8 million asylum seekers. Asylum seekers face numerous risk factors for mental health illness, such as trauma, lack of shelter, uncertainty, and prolonged asylum procedures. Despite the high prevalence of mental health illness, asylum seekers’ use of mental health services remains low compared to the need. This may be explained by various barriers, such as limited knowledge of the healthcare system, language barriers, distrust of authority, structural difficulties (financial constraints, precariousness, lack of capacity…), social exclusion, and differing beliefs and expectations about mental health and healthcare. This symposium will explore different interventions to address these barriers. First, we present the results of a research project conducted in Belgium, examining the value of the Cultural Formulation Interview (CFI) in asylum seekers with severe mental health problems. We discuss the explanatory models of asylum seekers’ suffering as elicited by the CFI, which provide insights into the very personal narratives of asylum seekers within their difficult current reality and the burden of the past. Secondly, we examine the added value of the CFI in the diagnostic assessment of asylum seekers and explore how it can be integrated in daily care and treatment planning. Based on our findings, we emphasize the need for a more holistic, recovery-oriented approach in order to improve mental health care for asylum seekers. Thirdly, we present a Belgian clinical model that fosters a close collaboration between a psychiatric clinic and the Belgian agency for the reception of asylum seekers. We discuss their mental health care program for asylum seekers as well as their education programs for first-line workers in the asylum reception centres. At last, we demonstrate a recently developed education and intervision program designed together with, and specifically for the staff of the asylum seekers’ reception centres.