Serious shortcomings in assessment and treatment of asylum seekers' mental health needs.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The prevalence of psychological complaints is known to be very high in populations of asylum seekers. Despite this, data on the health care system's ability to adequately meet these high-risk populations' mental health needs are scarce. This article investigates how well the German outpatient health care system is able to detect and adequately treat them.

Methods

To this end, we combined data from a cross-sectional survey with billing data from the local social welfare office from the year 2015. Using descriptive statistics, the data of the cross-sectional study are used to quantify the psychological health care needs of asylum seekers while the secondary data analysis indicates the actual access to and extent of psychological treatment.

Results

In the cros

SUBMITTER: Fuhrer A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7540848 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature