Service Providers’ Understanding of Mental Illness in Refugee Children: Applying a Biopsychosocial Approach.

Abstract

To date, the world is experiencing its largest forced population displacement globally. The mental health of everyone forcibly displaced is likely to be affected, however, children remain amongst the most at risk of the group. Non-clinical service providers are often the first people working with refugee children. Therefore, they play a crucial role in the recognition of mental illnesses and link refugee children to appropriate support services. Yet there are limited studies that focus on school aged children and their understanding of mental health and illness. Furthermore, there is limited research taking a holistic approach regarding non-clinical service providers’ understanding of refugee children mental health. This paper aims to add to the limited literature existing in this area by exploring how service providers understand refugee children’s behaviours, and links to mental health and well-being, through a biopsychosocial lens. An exploratory qualitative analysis was utilised to explore non-clinical service providers’ perspectives. The data suggested service providers have a low baseline of mental illness recognition beyond the child’s expression, through externalised behaviours and displays of aggression. Service providers overlooked other aspects contributing to refugee children’s mental health such as sleep, diet, and exercise. The lack of recognition, early intervention, and preventative measures to support mental health may adversely affect neurological development, serious and continuous mental illnesses, and poor quality of social life and connections, leading to poor quality of life and declined overall well-being. Keywords: Biopsychosocial model, Children’s well-being, Early intervention, Mental health, Non-clinical service providers, Refugee children