Mental Illnesses: The Mental Health Status Of Refugees

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The social problem we have chosen to address is the mental health status of refugees. Refugees are exposed to a significant amount of trauma due to fear, war, persecution, torture, and relocating. The mental health illnesses that can affect refugees due to exposure to traumas include post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and anxiety. Research indicated that refugees relocating from war-torn countries are particularly vulnerable to mental health concerns because many have experienced early traumas and face further post-traumas after relocation (Cummings, et al., 2011). However, despite the prevalence of mental health issues concerning refugees, mental health needs often go unrecognized and untreated. Post-Traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) develops after a traumatic or life-threatening event such as war, assault, or disaster. In most cases refugees are exposed to and carry these experiences of hostility, violence, racism, discrimination, and isolation with them to their new environment (Kulwicki,A., & Ballout,S., 2008). The resettlement period for refugees is found to be extremely critical because it inflames existing symptoms of PTSD in addition to increasing them. Refugees are likely to develop high rates of depression and anxiety. Although refugees are fleeing to a safe and new …show more content…

The desired outcome would be to make sure that the refugees are able to become productive members of society. The in order to evaluate the progress of those being counseled, we would put the refugees through a screening in order to test the mental health of the refugees with guidelines provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It is important that the screening show progress so that we do not lose our funding. If there is no progress we will have to implement new activities and do more research on how to effectively reduce mental health issues for refugees.

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