Thematic Focus: Mental Health Aspects of RSD

Mental health of asylum-seekers/Medical evidence:

"Asylum Adjudication, Mental Health and Credibility Evaluation," Federal Law Review, vol. 41, no. 3 (2013) [abstract]
- Scroll down to view abstract. Authors also produced the guidelines for best practice listed below.

Asylum Policy Instruction: Medico-Legal Reports from the Helen Bamber Foundation and the Medical Foundation Medico-Legal Report Service (UK Home Office, Jan. 2014) [text]

Managing and Understanding Psychological Issues among Refugee Applicants: Guidelines for Best Practice (Faculty of Law & Psychiatry Research and Teaching Unit, University of New South Wales, 2013) [text]
- The authors' "aim has been to fill an important gap in the support of decision makers, mental health professionals and applicants’ representatives with a view to creating an informed and practical understanding for managing the challenges for applicants with trauma-related psychological damage where little or no documentation or other objective evidence exists, and credibility is pivotal to decision-making. In these circumstances psychological and emotional conditions may combine with a mismatch of cultural norms and expectations to make refugee status evaluation a particularly complex task."

"A Mixed-method Study of Expert Psychological Evidence Submitted for a Cohort of Asylum Seekers Undergoing Refugee Status Determination in Australia," Social Science & Medicine, vol. 98 (Dec. 2013) [abstract]

"The Reception of Expert Medical Evidence in Refugee Status Determination," International Journal of Refugee Law, Advance Access, 27 Dec. 2013 [abstract]

Recognising Victims of Torture in National Asylum Procedures: A Comparative Overview of Early Identification of Victims and their Access to Medico-legal Reports in Asylum-receiving Countries (IRCT, Nov. 2013) [text]
- Investigates in part "how widely medico-legal reports (MLRs) are acknowledged as a relevant evidential tool within the national asylum procedure."

"The Use of Psychological and Medical Evidence within RSD Proceedings," Fahamu Refugee Legal Aid Newsletter, no. 45 (Feb. 2014) [full-text]

Mental health of other forced migration actors:

"The Burden of Research on Trauma for Respondents: A Prospective and Comparative Study on Respondents' Evaluations and Predictors," PLoS ONE 8(10): e77266 (Oct. 2013) [open access]

Laughing at Death (The Asylumist, Jan. 2014) [text]

"Ripples against the Other Shore: The Impact of Trauma Exposure on the Immigration Process through Adjudicators," Michigan Journal of Race & Law, vol. 19, no. 1 (Dec. 2013) [full-text]

"Self-reported Vicarious Trauma in Asylum Evaluators: A Preliminary Survey," Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health, Latest Articles, Dec. 2013 [abstract]
- Click on "look inside" to view first two pages of article.

Tagged Publications.