PD 06 - Protecting the Mental Health of Refugees and Migrants

More people are on the move now than ever before. There are an estimated 1 billion migrants in the world today of whom 258 million are international migrants and 763 million internal migrants – one in seven of the world’s population. 65 million of the world’s internal and international migrants are forcibly displaced today. This rapid increase of population movement has important public health implications, and therefore requires an adequate response from the health sector. Challenges to migrant health can be attributed to many factors, including lack of access to health services, absence of financial protection, and discrimination.

Mental health is a key and highly complex facet of migrant health challenges with multiple drivers and associated psychological conditions emerging at each phase of displacement and migration. In the first instance there may be traumatic events that occur in the country of origin and may have even led to the migration itself. Then the migrant may endure extreme environments, conditions or hardships throughout the migration journey itself, including extended stays in improvised camps with poor living conditions. Finally, there can be a whole host of challenges to face in the country of settling, a stage which perhaps least considered but most complex. Meanwhile, other challenges can be experienced at any and all stages, including stigma surrounding mental illness, access to good mental health care, continuity of appropriate psychological care, loss of loved ones, and the disconnect between legal settlement status and care providers, which can result in an incomplete course of treatment.

Within this session the panel will discuss these challenges and the measures we can work towards to protect the mental health of migrants and refugees.