Resumen de Traumatic Situations and Mental Disorders in Migrants, Refugees and Asylum Seekers
Around the world, there are hundreds of millions of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers. Many of them have mental health problems, in particular, those that suffered from traumatic situations in their original country, during the travel or in the host countries. Psychosis, depression, stress, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and paranoid-like states are some of these mental issues. Migrants have frequent difficulties in accessing mental health services. The main causes are economic problems, legal problems, problems in communication with mental health staff or taboos about mental health issues. These difficulties are particularly important in crowded refugee camps or crowded slums where mental health services are very limited. Differences in the feelings provoked by mental problems, such as pain in the chest related to depression, can provoke errors in the diagnosis of patients and delays in the treatment for mental issues. Prejudices about migrants or minorities can also determine errors in diagnosis. For example, a diagnosis of schizophrenia can be done for people that do not have this disease. The training of mental health staff for dealing with people that have different culture and language is a possible solution for this issue. A community approach including training of members of migrants’ communities can help to reduce the difficulties related with mental health issues. In our analysis of migrants’ problems, we use different approaches such as “cultural consonance”, “ethnic density” and “socio-cognitive niche”.
