Abstract Background: Unaccompanied refugee minors are a diverse and critically significant group. This group is often vulnerable with mental and physical health needs, which can take a long time to be met in the host country. There are numerous obstacles to providing health care to this group, originating with not only the refugees’ country of origin but also long dangerous journeys and lack of cultural insensitive service provision. Aim: To explore the experiences and perceptions of unaccompanied young adults in the asylum-seeking process in relation to their health. Method: Five unaccompanied young adults were interviewed, and thematic analysis was used to explore relevant issues. Results: In relation to asylum process and minors’ health and wellbeing, four major themes emerged: Descriptions of terrible journeys, mental health associated with asylum seeking, experience of stress and trauma, coping strategies. Discussion: Their views reflected a wide range of opinions on the asylum process, their wellbeing and how they dealt with it, but many held negative perceptions toward asylum-seeking process and had great uncertainty whether their applications would be rejected or accepted which significantly affected their wellbeing. This could be explained by their descriptions of their experiences within various countries they passed through, their experiences of being a refugee/asylum-seeker or cultural differences. Conclusion: It is arguably it is important to engage this group in the development of policy and practice in child mental health, and in developing services for them. / Abstract Background: Unaccompanied refugee minors are a diverse and critically significant group. This group is often vulnerable with mental and physical health needs, which can take a long time to be met in the host country. There are numerous obstacles to providing health care to this group, originating with not only the refugees’ country of origin but also long dangerous journeys and lack of cultural insensitive service provision. Aim: To explore the experiences and perceptions of unaccompanied young adults in the asylum-seeking process in relation to their health. Method: Five unaccompanied young adults were interviewed, and thematic analysis was used to explore relevant issues. Results: In relation to asylum process and minors’ health and wellbeing, four major themes emerged: Descriptions of terrible journeys, mental health associated with asylum seeking, experience of stress and trauma, coping strategies. Discussion: Their views reflected a wide range of opinions on the asylum process, their wellbeing and how they dealt with it, but many held negative perceptions toward asylum-seeking process and had great uncertainty whether their applications would be rejected or accepted which significantly affected their wellbeing. This could be explained by their descriptions of their experiences within various countries they passed through, their experiences of being a refugee/asylum-seeker or cultural differences. Conclusion: It is arguably it is important to engage this group in the development of policy and practice in child mental health, and in developing services for them. / Abstract Background: Unaccompanied refugee minors are a diverse and critically significant group. This group is often vulnerable with mental and physical health needs, which can take a long time to be met in the host country. There are numerous obstacles to providing health care to this group, originating with not only the refugees’ country of origin but also long dangerous journeys and lack of cultural insensitive service provision. Aim: To explore the experiences and perceptions of unaccompanied young adults in the asylum-seeking process in relation to their health. Method: Five unaccompanied young adults were interviewed, and thematic analysis was used to explore relevant issues. Results: In relation to asylum process and minors’ health and wellbeing, four major themes emerged: Descriptions of terrible journeys, mental health associated with asylum seeking, experience of stress and trauma, coping strategies. Discussion: Their views reflected a wide range of opinions on the asylum process, their wellbeing and how they dealt with it, but many held negative perceptions toward asylum-seeking process and had great uncertainty whether their applications would be rejected or accepted which significantly affected their wellbeing. This could be explained by their descriptions of their experiences within various countries they passed through, their experiences of being a refugee/asylum-seeker or cultural differences. Conclusion: It is arguably it is important to engage this group in the development of policy and practice in child mental health, and in developing services for them.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:uu-325560 |
| Date | January 2017 |
| Creators | Luzige, Allan Titan |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
| Relation | Uppsala Dissertations from the Faculty of Medicine, 0282-8928 |
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