Maternal Mental Health of Refugee and Asylum Seekers in the UK — Five Key Findings

Thank you Dee, for this brilliant piece of article. It put some light on another important group of refugees and asylum seekers, whose mental well-being is often overlooked: migrants mothers.

Although the mental health of refugees and asylum seekers has received much attention in the media, academia and from community-based organisations, women’s maternal mental health-related illnesses are an under-researched area. In her 2014 Race Equality Foundation Briefing Paper “The maternal mental health of migrant women”, Zahira Latif writes, “There are currently no national statistics which show rates of maternal mental health related illnesses among women in the United Kingdom”.

Mind the Gap

Thanks to Dee for this follow-up article to the previous post on the practical challenges to integration. This article continues the discussion on mental health that was touched on previously. Through the research project mentioned in the article, this post identifies a number of mental health service issues that many refugees and asylum seekers can relate to.

Disjointed mental health service provision for refugees and asylum seekers

My previous blog looked at some of the practical challenges faced as asylum seekers transition to new refugee status such as ineffective multiagency working, resulting in gaps in service provision, and problems in obtaining ID documents and variations in the types of ID accepted by different organizations.

I now look at some of the challenges experienced by refugees and asylum seekers in accessing and using mental health services. A 2008 report published by the Faculty of Public Health, “The health needs of asylum seekers”, highlighted some of the issues faced by both asylum seekers accessing health services, and health service providers providing health services for asylum seekers. These include frontline staff with limited training in cultural and language differences, limited knowledge of the different service needs of asylum seekers, a lack of interpreting services, and ineffective multiagency working.

The Essentials of Healthy Living

"Thanks to Zahra for highlighting such useful tips on how to keep our minds healthy. Indeed, only if our mind is at peace will we be able to reach our full potential and achieve our goals in life!"

Looking after your mind

People with a healthy body live a well-structured lifestyle. A good diet, regular exercise and activities, sleeping well and regular physical check-ups are all part of a rich life that makes for a more fulfilling life. In short, a healthy body means a happy life.

People with a healthy mind live productive and fulfilling lives. They are aware of their mind, its performance, needs and development and so taking care of your mind is as important as taking care of your body. How you think, feel and behave all comes from a healthy mind. I would even say that the condition of your mind can affect your body. It is common to meet people who are aware of the benefits of exercise and regular sleep, but who still make excuses not to start: too busy, no money, no time, of how much benefit would it really be? Science tells us that there is a physiological link between our mind and emotional and rational experiences in life.

New Syndrome Affecting Asylum Seekers Named

Thanks to David for making us aware of a new syndrome, Prolonged Asylum Seeker Syndrome. If you think you or someone you know might be experiencing the following symptoms, it is important to seek help and support from a mental health professional.

Be Aware of a New Syndrome! 

What is it? Who can be affected? How widespread is it? How can you help those suffering from such a syndrome? 

Well, the new syndrome was called "Protracted Asylum Seeker Syndrome" by a group of psychiatrist researchers. They published their findings at the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists in Hobart in 2012. As the name indicates, it affects asylum seekers. To show how widespread it is, a news report said: "Major depression was diagnosed in more than 60 percent of asylum seekers and about 30 percent of refugees." 

You may click here to read about the syndrome or here to hear Associate Professor Sundram describe it.

You may also read the interesting article pasted below or click here to read it in its original form:

Mental Health Is Great Health

Thanks to Zahra for sharing these thoughts on the importance of paying as much attention to our mental wellbeing as our physical health.

Mental health is not a matter of having a lack of sad life experiences; it is learning how to keep a healthy mind in spite of those experiences. 

In order to stay healthy, it is important for us to routinely have our health checked and to highlight all of our medical appointments in our diary. From an early age, we learn to take responsibility for our body, such as dental, eye and sexual health, as well as diet. Doctors who check our overall health spend time updating our personal and family medical history. 

Mental health is another service for keeping us well and should be part of our routine health check up. We need to ensure that we are maintaining a healthy mind and practice for wellbeing, as our mind is an essential tool to serve our body in order to help us live well.

When we endure experiences in our life which our thoughts are unable to digest, our minds get sick and we suffer emotional pain. Trying to ignore these exceptional experiences and hide them away from others, we find ourselves unable to eat, concentrate, sleep, play or work. But it is really important that we address the causes of these physical symptoms and ask for help in learning how to deal with these experiences.

Nietzsche described mental health as "great health" that helps us to accept our experiences as knowledge of our body. Whenever we feel fear, anger, sadness, despair, irritation, confusion and frustration, we must remember that we still have in our hands unrevealed potential for happiness to move positively on in our lives!

Mental Health Awareness Week, 13th-19th May 2013

Mental Health Awareness Week runs from 13-19 May and is themed around physical activity and wellbeing. Physical activity is often described as something we ‘ought to do’ to avoid developing health problems such as diabetes and heart disease. What's less often explained is the huge potential it has to enhance our happiness and quality of life and reduce mental illness. This year’s Mental Health Awareness Week aims to shift our motivation for physical activity to something we choose to do to increase our wellbeing.

At a very basic level, physical activity just means any movement of your body that uses your muscles and expends energy. One of the great things about physical activity is that there are endless possibilities and there will be an activity to suit almost everyone!

Improving Access to Primary Healthcare in London

Check out this exciting new collaborative project between MRCF, the London Deanery and NHS London designed to facilitate migrants and refugees' access to primary healthcare.

TEAM UP CASE STUDY

Migrant & Refugee Communities Forum (MRCF): Improving access to primary healthcare in London

Background

Migrants and refugees often face a huge challenge to get the health care that they need due to a complex asylum process and a lack of understanding from doctors of their needs and entitlements. Many have come from countries where there is no primary health care system. On top of this, language and cultural differences often make it difficult for GPs to communicate with people in these communities. 

To help tackle these issues a team of five general practice trainees have joined forces with MRCF, a user-led, community forum working to promote the rights of migrants and refugees in London. MRCF provides a mentoring service for newly arrived migrants and refugees to help them access services and settle in to a new life in London.

Amell's Corner - Emotional Abuse

Today’s blog will focus on emotional abuse within relationships.

Emotionally abusive relationships are characterized by control games, jealousy, withholding sex and emotional contact, isolation, manipulation, humiliation, verbal abuse, intimidation, refusal to ever be pleased with you, and constantly belittling you and disguising it as advising or teaching. 

With time, the effects of emotionally abusive behaviours wear away at the victim's self-confidence, sense of self-worth, and trust in self-perceptions and self-concept, cutting at their very core and creating scars far deeper than any physical ones (Engel 1992, p.10).

Other long-term effects of emotional abuse include:

·Depression
·Withdrawal
·Low self-esteem and self-worth
·Emotional instability
·Sleep disturbances
·Physical pain without cause
·Suicidal ideation, thoughts or attempts
·Extreme dependence on the abuser
·Underachievement
·Inability to trust
·Feeling trapped and alone
·Substance abuse

You may find after reading this that many of these things have been done to you or have maybe been attitudes or behaviours you’ve had in a relationship at some point in your life. This doesn’t necessarily mean you are an abuser or are being abused; we're all human and make mistakes! The main thing to bear in mind is that emotional abuse has a clear and consistent pattern, so if you notice such behaviours occurring consistently, it's time to start ringing the alarm bells.

Amell's Corner - Depression

Depression is a word used often and often misunderstood. The stigma attached to depression can be due to a lack of understanding of the disorder. If people understood that depression is something that could affect anyone at anytime and is actually very common and nothing to be ashamed of, then maybe more people would be able to come forward and seek the support they need in overcoming it.

Feelings of worthlessness, hopelessness, guilt, unexplained episodes of tearfulness, bleak thoughts about the future, fear of going insane or losing control, thoughts of self harm, irritability, indecisiveness or a loss of interest in activities usually enjoyed including sex....are all signs that one may be experiencing depression. These are by no means the only symptoms of depression. There are many, including physical symptoms such as chest pain, digestive problems, headaches, bad memory, lack of appetite and sleep, back pain, body aches, weight gain or loss amongst many others!

So why do people get depressed?

Amell's Corner - Panic Attacks

Imagine you’re walking down a dark alleyway and a suspicious character appears behind you with a knife in hand! Sight of this puts you in an immediate state of anxiousness - your heart is pounding frantically in your chest, your breathing becomes fast and shallow, your body is trembling and your legs feel like jelly, your throat becomes dry, and you feel dizzy and nauseous. You turn around again and now they are running towards you. You panic and are now physically ready to protect yourself from the perceived attacker or run as fast as your legs will carry you. This is known as the "fight or flight response,'' a natural human survival mechanism used to protect us from danger.

Sometimes we have thoughts and fears triggered by a whole range of negative and stressful life experiences which can subconsciously activate the fight or flight response even in the absence of danger. Our mind communicates to our body that it needs to protect us from perceived danger. When this occurs in the absence of any real danger, the body physically reacts in a way that the conscious mind cannot understand as we begin to physically prepare to protect ourselves from a danger we cannot see. This is when we experience all the unpleasant symptoms of an anxiety attack such as palpitations, trembling, shallow breathing and dizziness, alongside a whole range of other physical symptoms, but can’t quite understand why this is happening. These symptoms are simply our body physically preparing to run or fight off an attack. The first time a person ever experiences an anxiety attack is usually reported to be an extremely terrifying experience mainly because they didn’t know what was happening to them.

Highlighting Homeopathy

Jeena, an advocate of homeopathy, explains how it works:

Homeopathy was started by a German scientist. The British Medical Association does not endorse it because it has not been scientifically proven, but Prince Charles is a big advocate. 

If you drink coffee during the night and can’t sleep, a homeopath will take the same substance in the coffee that causes you not to sleep to treat you. It’s like an immunization. They treat you with what causes the problem.

They take the substance and dilute it and drop it on small balls of sugar that are lentil sized. They shake this, and the number of times they shake it is the strength or concentration.

It works with the body like drugs, or magic, and is even used to treat moods and emotional trauma, and children and animals.

Tablets must be soaked with a dry mouth, and you can’t eat or drink for half an hour before or after you take them. You should keep them away from  perfume. You should only take them when you have symptoms and immediately stop taking them as soon as the symptoms finish.

Amell's Corner

MRCF's resident health expert, Amell, introduces her column, Amell's Corner:

Amell's Corner will "inform-advise-and motivate’’ the reader, providing them with helpful hints and facts on how to tackle common mental health issues so they can begin their journey to recovery and regain ownership of their life!  

The term health covers an extremely broad range of physical, emotional and psychological facets. Having good health is not defined by the absence of physical disease, but rather is a broad term that embraces the mind, body and spirit of an individual.

It is often the case that an individual will attend to the physical condition of their body and neglect their mental health issues, unaware of the fact that there is a strong connection between mental health and physical health and that it is difficult for one to exist without the other. Many physical symptoms experienced by an individual can be misdiagnosed and treated with unnecessary medications such as pain killers etc., when in fact the symptoms are a result of the individual's mental ill health.