De senaste åren har allt fler människor flytt till Europa. Folk tvingas på flykt på grund av krig, katastrofer och elände. Detta kan knappast vara positivt för deras psykiska hälsa. Allmänsjuksköterskans roll kommer att prövas av detta och det är därför viktigt att sjuksköterskan är medveten om olika tankesätt och omvårdnadsstrategier för att behandla den psykiska ohälsan. Inte minst när det visar att psykisk ohälsa har blivit en ökad trend för sjukskrivning bland den svenska befolkningen. Tio vetenskapliga artiklar och en rapport som behandlade psykisk ohälsa hos människor på flykt analyserades för att ingå i resultatet. Den första delen av resultatet beskriver förekomsten av psykisk ohälsa medan den andra delen redovisar upplevelser i tre teman och sju underteman. Resultatet visar att psykisk ohälsa bland människor på flykt är utbredd, även om det förekommer tydliga skillnader gällande psykiska diagnoser hos dem. Deras upplevelser handlar i stor utsträckning om faktorer som förstärker deras psykiska ohälsa och sätter dem i utanförskap. Det gör att de försöker värna om sig själva genom försvarsmekanismer som inte alltid är till det bättre, samtidigt som de upplever att det finns stöd i deras nya omgivning. Hos människorna själva finns en drivkraft om att kunna acklimatisera sig i det nya samhället även om hinder upplevs, såväl inom dem som runt om kring. Det är därför önskvärt att sjuksköterskan, med hjälp av kunskap om förekomst och upplevelser hos människor på flykt, utför en mellanmänsklig, god och förtroendeingivande vård som behandling för de människor som lider av psykisk ohälsa till följd av flykt. / Background: There has been an increasing prevalence of mental illness among Swedes; in addition a lot more people have fled their home countries due to war and disaster. With them they carried traumatic experiences. What have these effects and occurrences had on their mental status? Aim: This study aims to investigate the prevalence and experience of mental illness among fleeing people. Method: A literature overview was performed to gather and analyse data from both qualitative and quantitative studies. A search for prevalence in quantitative data was used. Prevalence of mental illness is first presented in a compilation and then three themes with seven subthemes describing similarities and differences emerged in the analysis of qualitative and quantitative studies. Results: Prevalence of mental illness was more common among displaced people than the non-displaced with depression, anxiety and posttraumatic stress as the most common diagnosis. Traumatic experiences were also a factor that could hinder the individuals from adopt in the new country. It also showed that there were effects that fortified the mental illness as well as their own defence mechanisms. However, the individuals also experienced support from people with similar experience as well as people in the society they now belong to. They also felt that they wanted to be acclimatized into their new country in order to create a new life. Conclusions: The nurse's role is of importance to create an interpersonal relationship and thus provide safety and trustworthiness to give patients’, persons who have fled, understanding and confidence in health care regarding their mental health.

This thesis investigates asylum seekers/refugees’ orientations to belonging and identity. It is based on in-depth semi-structured interviews conducted among asylum seekers/refugees residing in Scotland between 2006 and 2008 and on a media monitoring of a number of UK newspapers. The interviews were analysed for interviewees’ orientations to feelings of belonging and identity with the UK, Scotland and homelands. They were also analysed for interviewees’ perceptions (beliefs and understandings) of newspapers’ reporting of asylum and importance to their sense of national belonging and national identity forming. The monitoring provided the context of newspapers’ reporting of asylum at the time of interviews. It enabled a small-scale examination of media content with reference to interviewees’ perceptions. The thesis explores two assumptions. Firstly, asylum seekers/refugees’ national belonging and national identity formations are complex and contingent upon their everyday ‘lived’ experiences. Secondly, asylum seekers/refugees’ belonging and identity formations, as social processes of citizenship, cannot be understood in isolation from the high visibility of the asylum issue in UK media. As an empirical study, therefore, its findings are deployed to critique policymaking, theoretical and media accounts of non-British citizens’ forms of belonging to, and identification with the British ‘nation’. It is suggested that, in addition to policymaking, there are other social circumstances that would facilitate ethnic minority migrants’ national belonging and national identity formations. These factors do not only account for the prioritising of Scottishness over Britishness, but also migrants’ ‘hyphenated’ identities. This thesis will therefore provide evidence suggesting that non-citizens (ethnic minorities), have their own meanings and agency of orientating to a feeling of national belonging and national identity that is nuanced and contingent on their experiences. The thesis does not aim to establish media causality. However, it highlights the fact that newspaper coverage can evoke responses from marginalised groups and provide the context from which identities are narrated and mobilised. The thesis will improve our understanding of the practices, meanings and contestations of belonging and identity that is grounded in the ‘lived’ experiences of noncitizens. This sociological dimension to ethnic minorities’ citizenship forming is not only poorly understood, but has been dominated by theoretical and policymaking accounts in the contemporary state.

Yes / Community-based peer volunteer interventions are increasingly used with people who are asylum seekers and refugees accessing health services. There is a dearth of evidence evaluating the benefits of volunteering for asylum seeking or refugee volunteers. Volunteers may have poor mental health and feel socially isolated due to their experiences as refugees and asylum seekers and may struggle or be unable to obtain paid employment. Volunteering in other contexts has been found to be beneficial to the health and well-being of the volunteer. This paper reports on an aspect of a wider study evaluating the community-based Health Access for Refugees Project, with the aim of exploring the impact of volunteering on the health and well-being of the peer (asylum seeker or refugee) volunteer. In 2020, we conducted qualitative semistructured interviews by phone with 15 volunteers who were asylum seekers or refugees. The interviews were audio recorded, data were transcribed verbatim and the data set was thematically analysed. We found that the positive relationships which developed and the training received through volunteering boosted volunteers' mental well-being. They felt motivated and confident in helping others, felt a sense of belonging and this reduced their social isolation. They also believed they benefited personally, helping their access to health services, and preparing them for future education, training or a career. In light of the beneficial nature of volunteering identified in this study, establishing more volunteering opportunities for this population and other marginalised groups with poor mental health is recommended. However, more research is needed to assess both the long-term impact of the role in terms of the peer volunteer's health and well-being, and the societal benefit of people moving on, integrating and contributing to society. / Refugee Council

In recent years, the field of queer asylum studies has slowly been expanding in different contexts across the world, with numerous methodologies and various topics of focus. In Sweden, the academic work in this area has mainly focused on legal perspectives. Providing a different perspective, this thesis examines the situation and experiences of LGBTQ asylum seekers and refugees in Linköping, Sweden through a community-based collage project. It examines how collages can be used as a method for research and a tool for community building within this context, and explores the experiences of LGBTQ asylum seekers and refugees in Linköping, Sweden, using individual and group collages. Using the concept of bricolage, the thesis ties together various artworks with short narratives and analytical interpretations. Together, they form a fragmented, in itself collage-like insight into this community. Through these fragments, the thesis reflects on the themes of migration, belonging, survival, and identity. Additionally, it explores questions of home, family, refugeeness, mess, homonormativity and representation. I argue that commonly used narratives of migration often do not fit this group, as they face highly complex forms of oppression based on their intersecting identities. Furthermore, the thesis examines the use of collage as a method by looking into the ways collage can negotiate methodological issues like accessibility and researcher accountability, how it can function as a tool for community building, and how it can be used to allow a community researcher to negotiate their positionality in an easier way. I argue that the use of collage has many benefits and that the use of the collage method in this thesis has enriched the research.