Essay Sample on Prevalence of the Mental Disorders Faced By Refugee Children

Literature Review

According to Bhugra, Craig & Bhui(2010), most countries especially those found in Western and Eastern Europe and The United States of America are facing a big challenge of coping with the large numbers of refugees who are trooping to these countries in these regions. Out of all these asylum seekers, approximately a quarter of them are children. These children are exposed to three types of stresses: the stress they were facing while still in their countries of children; during their movement from their countries of origin to the host countries and when trying to settle in their host countries. Displacement has a significant impact on the mental stability of the children

Gadeberg, Montgomery, Frederiksen & Norredam(2017) posit that the available literature shows the increase levels of the psychological morbidity amongst the children who have been displaced from their origin countries. Some of the common mental disorders amongst these children are depression and anxiety disorders and post-traumatic stress.Studies have tried to identify the protective factors which will make the children who are at the highest risks of suffering from the mental health issues to develop some form of resilience. The best ways in which these children can be helped include the support from the family members or close relatives; the societal agencies that externally comes to reinforce the coping efforts of the children and a positive personality disposition (Sengupta & In Blessinger,2018). The role of the parent before the stress attacks and after it attacks is vital because a parent is one of the closest people in the life of any child.

The adults who lost a parent when they were still young more especially during wars are likely to experience depression, and the main factor of predicting the vulnerability is the quality of care the child received from their parents. These kinds of parents are likely to give poor care to their children. In executing the plan on how to help these kinds of children, two main areas need to be targeted (Julie,2017). Firstly, it is helping those who are already experiencing mental health problems and other difficulties that are related to psychological disturbances. Secondly, there should be the development of strategies that are geared towards protecting those who are at the highest risk of getting mental health attacks. Since refugee children go through a lot of experiences before they settle in their host countries, those experiences are the ones that cause mental disturbances hence causing certain mental disorders ( Meda,2017). Besides, even after settling, since the environment is different from the ones they are used to they are likely to experience untold suffering before they adjust and fit in their new environment.

In some cases trying to come up with strategies on how to help these children is never successful because there is lack of concrete and reliable evidence on the effectiveness of the therapeutic clinical interventions in the children who are in this situation (Meda, 2017). This is most studies conducted so far have nor concentrated on the mental health effects on these group of children, but the focus has been on other calamities such as floods and school shootings and how they are related to the refugees. Several refugee children have consistently been affected with trauma through the concentration of the researchers has been elsewhere (WHO,2012). However, the general agreement is that these children are facing tough challenges and intervention measures which include individualized family attention and the interventions which are done at the school level (Sermin et al.,2017). The available literature shows that as one way of helping these children come of this situation the cognitive behavioral remedies have been used and both the single case series and the case series have shown that the method is effective because good results have consistently been recorded. Most of these therapies include story-telling, music and art therapies(Laura,2010).The traumatic events t like murder, rape, and torture that the refugee children are subjected to expose them to emotional, cognitive and moral problems because they interfere with the perception of the child as well as the expectations of other people.

The United Nations has come up with several charters which address the needs of the refugee children which underlying the principle of the universal human rights. These charters include the United Nations Convention on refugees, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Elizabeth,2019). These declarations stipulate that everyone has the right to seek asylum and enjoy living in other countries more especially if he/ she is running away from prosecution. These charters were ratified by all the countries except Somalia (Laura,2010). Even the immigration officials tend to mistreat the refugee children; therefore, they also need to be trained so that they can treat the refugees with the care that they require.

The Known Barriers

Sometimes addressing the needs of the refugee children who have been mentally affected might be challenging because sometimes they do not fit into particular packages of care (Heather,2012). They, therefore, require different professionals such as the ethnic support groups, interpreters, the legal teams conversant with immigration laws, social services, voluntary groups, and even schools. It therefore because difficult to give these children the care they require because it is sometimes impossible to assemble all these teams so that they can handle the children's issues (Janna, 2017). Therefore more resources and time are needed so that these children can be given proper attention

The rational and cultural barriers of the refugee communities also affect the care and assistance these children need to receive(WHO,2012). However, this has been made possible because there are volunteers who offer their services to refugee children. Equally, some organizations have dedicated their funds for the welfare of the refugees, and they do great work in helping these children come out of the mental problems they are in(Dettlaff & Fong,2016). The developmental and emotional needs of the children have to be catered for if they have to be prevented from mental disorders.

Best Practices in Care and Treatment Services

Janna,(2017) argues that though there have not been studies conducted on the benefits of group treatment, however, based on the evidence available from other groups under the same circumstances, it is good in helping children to learn how to cope. Through this kind of treatments, the child is also able to master and share the different ways in which the problems can be solved. Most of the mental disorder of children needs to handled directly and immediately. This is important because if for instance, a child is suffering from the common problems of sleep and depression, the medication is available to treat the conditions. It is therefore important to deal with the situation immediately it is detected.

The children who are unaccompanied more especially those who are vulnerable get defiled (Sermin et al.,2017). The children who are defiled suffer from mentality because of the defilement experiences they go through. Sometimes the laws in the host countries are so stringent to an extent they do not care about what the children are subject to. In some cases, even minors have been arrested and put into prison because of the problems which are not theirs. This kind of incarceration leaves the affected children at the risk of developing mental problems being they are subjected to situations which they are not able to cope with(Dettlaff & Fong,2016).. All these problems leave the refugee children in situations whereby if they are not attended to immediately the conditions may worsen hence making it difficult to treat them.

The Use of Care and Approach in Improving Services

Most of the primary prevention measures employed here are undertaken in the school environment because this is where these children spend most of their time (Public Health Aspects,2016). Sometimes the immigration laws in some of these countries are so strict, and they do not take the interests of these children into consideration hence exposing them to untold suffering which is not of their own making. The children who suffer most are the ones who are not accompanied by their parents on guardians. In most cases when wars break out parents and children run for their safety hence creating a situation where the parents and the children are separated (Sengupta & In Blessinger,2018). These are the kind of children who require urgent mental health intervention before the condition worsens. For the programmes of attending to these children to be successful multispectral teams have to be assembled so that they can work in an extended manner. Since most of these children cannot speak the language of the host countries, it becomes a bit difficult for them to be attended well because an interpreter has to be found so that the communication can be effective

References

Bhugra, D., Craig, T. K. J., & Bhui, K. (2010). The mental health of refugees and asylum seekers. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Dettlaff, A. J., & Fong, R. (2016). Immigrant and refugee children and families: Culturallyresponsive practice. Oxford: Oxford University Press

Elizabeth Barnert, Nathalie Lopez, Philippe Bourgois, Gery Ryan, Paul J. Chung, Eric Stover.(2019).My Child's Journey Home: Perspectives of Adult Family Members on the separation and Reunification of the"Disappeared" Children of El Salvador. Human Rights Quarterly

Gadeberg, A. K., Montgomery, E., Frederiksen, H. W., & Norredam, M. (2017). Assessing trauma and mental health in refugee children and youth: a systematic review of validated screening and measurement tools. (European journal of public health.)Heather Stringer. (2018).Psychologists Respond to a Mental Health Crisis at the Border. American Psychological Association.Pearson:New York

Janna Ataiants, Chari Cohen, Amy Henderson Riley, Jamile Tellez Lieberman,

Mary Clare ReidyMariana Chilton. (2017).Unaccompanied Children at the United States Border, a HumanRights Crisis that can be addressed with Policy Change. Springer Science+Business Media New York

Julie M. Linton, Md, Faap, A Marsha Griffi N, Md, Faap, B Alan J. Shapiro, Md, Faap, C

Council On Community Pediatrics. (2017).Detention Of Immigrant Children

Laura C N Wood. (2018).Impact of punitive immigration policies, parent-child separation and child detention on the mental health and development of children Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Meda, L. (2017). Refugee Learner Experiences. A Case Study Of Zimbabwean Refugee Children. Place Of Publication Not Identified: Anchor Academic Publishing.

Public health aspects of mental health among migrants and refugees: A review of the evidence on mental health care for refugees, asylum seekers, and irregular migrants in the WHO European Region. (2016)

Sengupta, E., & In Blessinger, P. (2018). Refugee education: Integration and acceptance of refugees in mainstream society. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Sermin Yalin Sapmaz, Bengisu Uzel Tanriverdi,Masum Ozturk, Ozge Gozacanlar, Gulsum Yoruk Ulker,and Yekta Ozkan1(2017).Immigration-related mental health disorders in refugees 5-18 years old living in Turkey.Journal of Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment.

World Health Organization, & Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, (2012). Assessing mental health and psychosocial needs and resources: Toolkit for humanitarian settings.Pearson: New York