We highlight current challenges and opportunities in refugee child psychiatric epidemiology and mental health services research and present recommendations for moving forward. Specific to interventions, we describe work being conducted with different age groups on individual, family, and community levels in refugee camps and countries of resettlement. We first present a framework for understanding risk and protective factors for refugee youth mental health, what is known about the prevalence of mental health problems of refugee youth in both high (HICs) and low- to middle-income countries (LMICs), as well as information on the trajectories of youth mental health over time. This article presents an overview of current knowledge of the epidemiology of mental health and psychosocial well-being of refugee children and interventions designed to prevent or ameliorate mental health problems among youth. Roughly 85% of refugees currently reside in countries in developing regions of the world, including Turkey, Pakistan, and Uganda ( 97). Currently, almost one-third of all refugees are victims of the civil war in Syria, with large numbers also coming from Afghanistan and conflicts in African countries ( 97). A refugee is defined as “someone who is unable or unwilling to return to their country of origin owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion” ( 96). In 2017, the number of refugees worldwide was at an all-time high of 25.4 million children and youth under age 18 constitute more than half (52%) of this population ( 97).
The global refugee population has steadily increased in size over the past several years and, consequently, receives considerable attention from international media and policy makers.
A constructive dialogue between scholars and policy makers is warranted. In light of the mounting xenophobic sentiments we are presently witnessing across societies, we argue that, as a first step, all epidemiological and intervention research should advocate for social justice to guarantee the safety of and respect for the basic human rights of all refugee populations during their journey and resettlement. We highlight current challenges and limitations of extant literature and present potential opportunities and recommendations in refugee child psychiatric epidemiology and mental health services research for moving forward. This article adopts a critical eye in summarizing current epidemiological knowledge of refugee youth mental health as well as interventions aimed to prevent or reduce mental health problems among children and adolescents in both high- and low-to-middle-income countries. The number of refugee youth worldwide receives international attention and is a top priority in both academic and political agendas.
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