Ms Melaet Habtay

Research project: Understanding East African refugee and asylum seeker perspectives on mental health and accessing mental health support in the United Kingdom

Abstract

Globally, one in eight individuals (nearly a billion people) experience mental health problems, and it is also estimated that one in four adults and one in ten children experience mental health illnesses in England. Mental health problems are an obstacle to social and economic progress of any country, as it costs the world economy around 1 trillion US dollar each year, and it also has been estimated to cost the UK economy between 70–100 billion pounds per year. In the UK and other Western countries, refugees and undocumented immigrants are one of the most vulnerable groups of society that have five times more mental health needs than the general population, but research has shown that most of them experience barriers while accessing mental health services, many of which do not cater for their needs.

By using a qualitative method, this doctorate study aims to explore refugees' and undocumented immigrants' in the UK understanding of mental health disorder. This study will also examine the impact that personal, cultural, socio-political, economic and migration factors can have impact on seeking treatment and medical help from mental health services. The focus of the study would be to move away from deficit models used in mental health but draw on access-based models to co-produce interventions to improve mental health for refugees and undocumented migrants.