Country background

Little information is available regarding the number of refugees in the UK and plans to offer asylum to new groups of refugees. A minimum estimate is 120,000, higher estimates put the number at 250,000. A proportion of these are young people who are at high risk of developing mental health problems.

These children and young people have often experienced horrific ordeals in their home countries, faced hazardous journeys to the UK in search of safety, and upon arrival may have faced long periods of detention and uncertainty, financial hardships, poor accommodation, language barriers and racism. As a result they may have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties. Unresolved mental health problems cause a great deal of distress for the children or young person and affects the lives of those who care for them. If these young people are identified early, appropriate support can promote coping skills and resilience.

However, there is concern that young refugees and their families may have difficulty accessing current mainstream mental health services. This may be for reasons such as language barriers, lack of knowledge of the system, lack of awareness of types of help available and difficulties travelling to hospital bases. Social and health services are also typically over-burdened in asylum seeker 'dispersal' areas

Providing a school-based mental health programme has a number of advantages; it is readily accessible to pupils, parents and teachers, schools are vital for the emotional and social well being of children and provide an important service to families, as well as a link with other community services.

Please note: The information in this section is provided as archived AfCiC background material only. We do not currently direct any of our funding or resources to programmes in the United kingdom.