|
|
|
WELFARE OF REFUGEES
Graham Fawcett shows me a child's picture. Drawn mainly
in yellow, it is punctuated by red- red tanks, red guns,
a red body, red blood among falling houses. It was drawn
by a Kosovan refugee in the summer of 1999. Looking at the
picture, one begins to imagine the experiences that the
child went through. We immediately think of trauma, then
magnify it thousands of times to conjure up a traumatised
nation. (The Psychologist, 2000: Sue Cavill)
This statement immediately brings to the mind terrible
images of what the refugee child must have experienced;
the trauma and pain which followed the life of a young being.
The reaction to this sort of suffering is to help, and many
western mental health professionals did just this, they
went to Albania to try to help the traumatised people of
this country cope. Although Kosovo has access to good professional
mental health workers, including psychologists and psychiatrists,
Albania does not have such a developed understanding of
psychology as their study of psychology was restricted under
the communist regime until the early 1990s.
Graham Fawcett (Training Director and Chair of the Public
Policy Group for Youth with a Mission) was one of these
health professionals and suggested that the western way
of working was possibly not the most appropriate one. Kate
Harris (Refugee Support Psychologist) supports this notion
and says, "…much of the first-line support is
done by community groups. My work involves empowering community
groups, befriending". Kate has found that refugees
come from a culture in which coping mechanisms are not the
same as the western ones. Hence, one can not "impose"
a western framework on the problems of refugees.
Graham found that using an "information processing
approach" with Kosovans and Albanians in order to understand
the nature of trauma was most affective. This approach helped
those who were so traumatised by their experiences, that
they were unable to talk about it: the refugees are encouraged
to talk about what they have experienced until they can
make some sense of it. For example, Graham describes one
Kosovan refugee who came across the borders as having an
experience "beyond words", but undoubtedly was
affected by it. The refugee was given space to describe
the border and then what he saw; as he went through this
process, it became less traumatic.
Kate goes onto say that the problems refugees are faced
with when they arrive in Britain are not necessarily those
of post-traumatic stress disorder: "There are trauma
related problems, but trauma represents our concerns. Often
the key issues for these clients are actually homesickness,
social anxiety, and managing the difficulties of living
in the system here. For example, one Kosovan woman had lots
of nightmares during the conflict. These subsided, but when
she was housed here in an estate where her children were
abused, the nightmares came back." She also goes onto
say that the asylum system is part of the problem, "It
encourages a kind of despair, because the asylum seekers
wait so long, and the decisions are so unreasoned. They
are groups of survivors who are made helpless…I feel
strongly that refugees should be allowed to work and encouraged
to work, because it helps with preventing feelings of helplessness
as well as dispelling myths about asylum seekers 'scrounging'.
In some cases they have skills that are desperately needed,
particularly in the medical sector".
The way in which Kate works with refugees appears to be
more appropriate for people from different cultures. Kate
looks at the cultural context of her client as well as involving
local psychiatrists, when she finds herself working with
someone with a specific psychiatric problem. She says, "In
many communities, for example, the Somali community, there
may be different explanations for what we see in the West
as mental illness. If individuals prefer to use other models
of explanation and choose traditional healing over western
medicine, that is their choice, and in my experience can
prove a very effective intervention." Kate also feels
that the government's initiative to disperse refugees and
asylum seekers around the country, is potentially damaging:
"Not much effort is made to keep communities in the
same place. They are distressed about being dispersed, and
rightly so. If you send someone with little English where
they can't communicate with anyone they will struggle".
Kate advises health professionals to "get decent interpreters,
and develop a knowledge of local communities that the asylum
seeker could join. Try to get premises to use as a community
centre, and then allow the refugee community to direct as
to what they need. It might be that they don't actually
need a psychologist first and foremost- their first need
may be to link up with a local GP." Graham adds, "
The prime thing psychologists need to do is to identify
existing adaptive mechanisms that the refugee cultures use
to deal with distress and mental health problems. Don't
assume western psychology makes any sense to them whatsoever,
or that a scientific approach is valid."
As well as seeing the asylum system improved, Kate would
like to see models of good practice and guidelines drawn
up and circulated to people working with refugees around
the country. She would like to see easier access to health
services and services for refugee groups, and easier access
to employment. She says "If we're too focused on trauma
we forget people's ordinariness- most refugees want to be
known by their names, rather than living with the label
of being a 'refugee' and permenantly different."
Links
Home Office: www.homeoffice.gov.uk
The Refugee Council: www.refugeecouncil.org.uk
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees: www.unhcr.ch
Youth with a Mission: www.ywam.org
|
