Mental Health of Children Resident in a Refugee Camp: An Exploratory Study on Mental Health Nursing

• Main Author: Santos, Luisa Micaela Teixeira
• Publication Date: 2018
• Other Authors: Monteiro, Ana Paula Teixeira de Almeida Vieira
• Format: Other
• Language: eng
• Source: Repositórios Científicos de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (RCAAP)
• Download full: http://web.esenfc.pt/?url=yaQPQVPF
• topic: Asylum and Refugee Children; Refugee Camp; Transcultural Nursing; Mental Health Nursing

Current society is being marked by wars, socio-economic imbalances, violence, poverty, hunger, exploitation, forced migration across borders. This forced migration has a high impact on the physical and mental health of adults and children. Children are the ones who suffer the most from displacement, so children's mental health care makes the agenda of international organizations such as UNICEF and UNHCR. Especially for children, the rupture with their identity references can lead to confounding experiences, behavioral changes, and demonstration of negative emotions through aggressive behaviors. This proves the need for support and rapid social integration, ensuring the satisfaction of their basic human needs. According to the International Council of Nurses (ICN) nurses are the key to health care for refugees and migrants. Nurses have the theoretical and practical knowledge to help refugee children in a crisis situation. It should be noted that, although these children are sooner or later integrated into the host countries, evaluation, support for mental health and crisis intervention are essential to reduce vulnerability and reduce increased risk of developing mental disorders. Understanding the state of mental health is more reliable if the assessment is close to the moment of crisis. Nurses should contribute to assessing the mental health of these children in order to understand how these changes in mental health affect the behavior of these children. So the objectives of the study are to understand the mental health of children living in Kara Tepe Refugee camp (Greece) and identify specific protective and vulnerability factors in mental health experienced by this group.