Researching the mental health status of asylum seekers: reflections and suggestions for practice

Dora Bernardes; John Wright; Andrew G Livingstone

Abstract

Researching the mental health status of asylum seekers: reflections and suggestions for practice

Dora Bernardes, John Wright, Andrew G Livingstone

We used a multi-method approach to investigate aspects of the mental health of asylum seekers who had recently arrived in the UK. We used the Post- Migration Living Difficulties Scale, the Generalised Anxiety Disorder-7 Scale, the PTSD Symptom Scale Interview, the Clinical Outcomes Routine Evaluation and in-depth interviews. A total of 29 asylumseekers, 26 of whom were male, representing 13 countries, agreed to take part. This paper presents reflections on some of the challenges that arose during our investigation, and offers recommendations that may be of help to other esearchers embarking on research in this field.