Reflections on mental healthcare for an asylum seeker population caught in limbo on the Greek island of Samos

Abstract

A psychiatry trainee reflects on a period of work on the Greek island of Samos with the international medical non-governmental organisation Medécins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders, providing mental health and psychosocial support to asylum seekers. The clinic provided services to asylum seekers who were living in a crowded refugee camp, many of whom were experiencing symptoms of severe mental illness. The author reflects on the nature and severity of these presentations, and questions the role of psychiatry in treating mental illness that is clearly exacerbated by circumstances resulting from European asylum policies.

Keywords

• Refugee mental health
• international work in psychiatry
• transcultural psychiatry
• post-traumatic stress disorder
• depressive disorders