Resources - Health, Mental Health & Wellbeing Stream of Sanctuary

This section is designed to gather together a variety of resources relating to health and people seeking sanctuary.

Please let us know if you have any suggestions for useful resources to add by emailing [email protected]

Disclaimer: The information provided in this section is intended for guidance only. It is not a substitute for professional advice and we cannot accept any responsibility for loss occasioned as a result of any person acting or refraining from acting upon it.

Health Stream Resources

Welcome to our Health Blog.
Contact [email protected] to read the West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership FULL Case study.

Resources for Mental Health Awareness Week 2023 This year’s theme is ‘anxiety’, with the week running from 15 to 21 May 2023.

Presentation slides of the Dental care session- Health day event- Feb. 2023 Sanctuary seekers access to dentists ppt
Videos of the Dental care session- Health Day event- Feb. 2023 Video1 – Video2

Click the image of the resource to download or click the ‘Order Resources’ button to order printed copies.

Health Stream leaflet

Mental Health resource pack

Printed copies of the resource pack are not currently available but please download an electronic copy by clicking on the image or link above.

Health, Mental Health & Wellbeing Award Minimum Criteria

Other Resources

Healthcare Charging and Entitlements

Mental Health Resources
Resources on Health Issues (A-Z)
Links to organisations and specialist services
Refugee Health Professionals
How to find an NHS dentist?
How to register with a GP in the UK?

Forrest Medico-Legal Services have a range of useful resources including How to access and use the NHS, a guide for asylum-seekers
explaining Healthcare rights (seeing a doctor or nurse; going to hospital; having tests; receiving care for your mental health; calling/using an ambulance); registering with a GP; booking a GP appointment; getting medication; the 111 service; pharmacies; help with healthcare costs. ) Available in: English; Albanian; Arabic; Farsi (Iranian); Kurdish (Sorani); Tigrinya

Patients not Passports is a campaign coalition that have provided a toolkit for campaigning against health care charges.

Hands Up for Our Health is a new coalition urging the UK Government to suspend the NHS charging regulations, investigate the impact of health charging and commit to improving access to all NHS services.

Doctors of the World has a brilliant Infographic on Migrant Rights to Healthcare.

For information about maternity services see also the Maternity Stream resource pages

Maternity Action Information on residence rules and entitlement to NHS maternity care in England (2021)

There is also information about accessing healthcare services on our Information for Sanctuary Seekers page.

Advice on healthcare entitlements

Free advice is available to the public/professionals from Doctors of the World’s national helpline: 020 75157534 (10am to 12pm, Mon to Fri). Outside of these times e-mail: [email protected]

Maternity Action also provides free telephone advice to help women get the maternity care they need and on charging (0808 800 0041, Thurs. only 10am-12noon) & email advice at: [email protected]

The UK already charges some non-British patients, or their home countries, for most NHS secondary care (ie hospital care) after treatment. Patients who are not eligible for free care include short-term visitors, undocumented migrants, and some asylum seekers whose claims have been refused. There are already processes in place for hospitals to identify and bill these patients.

National resource pack on refugee mental health

This City of Sanctuary resource pack in partnership with Solace and Freedom from Torture is designed to help people understand the journeys that refugees and asylum seekers have been through that put pressure on their mental health. It is an excellent induction resource and also aims to help people in frontline services such as council offices and doctor’s surgeries recognise issues and help signpost them to available support.

Mental Health Resource Pack

Solace have designed two free online courses: Understanding Refugee and Asylum Seeker Mental Health and Effective Therapeutic Support for Asylum Seekers.

Refugee Wellbeing and Mental Health This video from the Muslim Doctors Association Wellbeing Wednesdays series is a really useful educational resource providing Insights from Dr Yusuf Ciftci and Dr Niloha Rangel from Doctors of The World on their work, traumas of people seeking safety, barriers they face, long term effects & how to help wellbeing & mental health.

A psychosocial conceptualisation of refugee experiences: Involuntary loss of home, torture and trauma August 2020, Thesis by William Gomes for: Master of Arts in Refugee Care Advisor: Professor Renos Papadopoulos

Resources on Health Issues (A-Z)

General

Resource Hub – Resources for Professionals caring for Asylum Seekers and Refugees

This hub, hosted by Liverpool John Moores University, was launched to provide accessible and up-to-date information on the rights and well-being of asylum seekers and refugees for health professionals and students. It contains a wealth of information including on mental health, the needs of unaccompanied minors and access to and eligibility for health care.

Working with people seeking asylum & refuge – a helpful guide for professionals from Lancashire & South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust – awarded as the first Foundation Trust of Sanctuary

Learn My Way resources on health and wellbeing, including how to make doctors appointments online, order repeat prescriptions and find advice on specific health conditions

Communication

Language Interpretation: Advice and guidance on the health needs of migrant patients for healthcare practitioners – information from gov.uk about using interpreters to communicate with patients

The Refugee Phrasebook has a Medical Phrasebook with useful words and phrases in different languages (this is under development and help is needed to build some of the languages)

Exercise and Wellbeing

Problems and solutions to undertaking regular physical activity and exercise for asylum seekers

#refugeeswelcome in parks resource book (2017) and conversation club pack from the Young Foundation

A-Z

Maternity

Please see the Maternity Stream site for specialised resources relating to maternity.

Maternity Action has a Maternity Rights Advice Line for advice about rights and entitlements (0808 800 0041, Thurs. only 10am-12noon) & email advice at: [email protected]

Mental Health

Our Mental Health Resource Pack covers a range of issues relating to sanctuary seekers and mental health.

‘Mental Health Commissioning with Migrant Communities’: This manual from Mind is designed to help local decision makers, commissioners and service providers better understand and assess the needs of vulnerable migrant communities. This can lead to improved local services access and culturally sensitive support for vulnerable migrants. The manual will provide the guidance and information needed to achieve this. Sustained and meaningful engagement with service providers, migrant community members, and commissioners to improve understanding of the problems vulnerable migrants face and can lead to creative, inclusive and viable solutions.

Our section on resources relating to Women includes resources on issues specifically relating to women and the impact on their mental health.

Parenting

Resources from Parenting and Families Research Group at the University of Manchester – research on parenting experiences of Syrian refugee families to raise awareness and support refugees through various stages of flight.

Film in collaboration with independent film-maker Hafsah Naib highlighting parents’ will and commitment to protect, engage and raise their children through war and displacement.
Exhibition featuring drawings from children in Syria
Leaflet, available in various languages, outlining the psychological impact as a result of war. While it is mainly targeted for parents with bite-size coping strategies and parenting advice, it would be useful for anyone who would like to gain a better understanding of the psychological impact of war.

PTSD / Memory

The Centre for the Study of Emotion and Law (CSEL) has a lot of resources (many of them very academic) relating to how people behave and respond to trauma and how this intersects with the law eg. reluctance to disclose experiences and the impact this can have on credibility assessments

Sexual Health

‘Sexual Health, asylum seekers and refugees’ is a handbook for people working with asylum seekers and refugees in England, produced by the Family Planning Association (FPA)

TB (Tuberculosis)

The toolkit is designed to be used locally to assist programme implementation by local stakeholders as well as individual providers who may be involved in any part of the process. The intended audience includes TB control boards, health and wellbeing boards, local medical councils, primary care practitioners: GPs, practice nurses, practice managers, commissioners: CCGs, local authorities, local PHE teams, TB services, local authority departments such as public health, housing, environmental health and third sector organisations working with eligible groups.

Trafficking / Modern Slavery

Modern Slavery is the recruitment, movement, harbouring or receiving of children, women or men through the use of force, coercion, abuse of vulnerability, deception or other means for the purpose of exploitation. Individuals may be trafficked into, out of or within the UK, and they may be trafficked for a number of reasons including sexual exploitation, forced labour, domestic servitude and organ harvesting.

This online resource provides an overview of the issue of modern slavery. It is aimed at helping all healthcare staff recognise the signs that someone has been trafficked, and to take appropriate action with confidence.

Links to organisations and specialist services

UK

Patients not Passports is a campaign coalition that have provided a toolkit for campaigning against health care charges.

Hands Up for Our Health is a new coalition urging the UK Government to suspend the NHS charging regulations, investigate the impact and commit to improving access to all NHS services

Freedom from Torture provides clinical consultation and care as well as medico-legal reports for victims of torture.

Doctors of the World help excluded people to access NHS healthcare in the UK. They have a clinic in London and a national helpline where they can provide advice on issues such as GP registration and access to hospital care. Doctors of the World have formally launched their Safe Surgeries initiative along with their new toolkit and lots of other resources for GP practices to tackle the most common barriers to GP registration faced by migrants.

Refugee Council has a Therapeutic Casework service in London and regionally.

England

Health and Social Care Map of England is a voluntary project to help share information about health, social care and third sector assets, resources and services in the community.

London

Doctors of the World runs a clinic in Bethnal Green for excluded people

Yorkshire & Humberside

Bevan Healthcare CIC is a specialist GP service for those that are homeless or seeking asylum in Bradford and Leeds

Solace is a Leeds-based charity that provides psychotherapy, complementary therapies and advocacy support to survivors of persecution and exile living in the Yorkshire and Humber region. See their Solace Papers – a series of Monographs about work undertaken by Solace therapists , in the field of mental health work with people seeking sanctuary.

Refugee Health Professionals

General Medical Council – Registration help for Refugee Doctors

Solace have designed two free online courses: Understanding Refugee and Asylum Seeker Mental Health and Effective Therapeutic Support for Asylum Seekers.

Building Bridges programme is an NHS funded partnership for Refugee Health Professionals living in London and is made up of three organisations: RAGU, Glowing Results and the Refugee Council. .

RAGU (Refugee Assessment and Guidance Unit)– specifically provides careers advice alongside guidance and employability skills development training for all Refugee Health Professionals.

WARD (Wales Refugee and Asylum Seeker Doctors) Group – Provide similar services as REACHE and RAGU for doctors in Wales.

Bridges Programmes – Provide similar services as REACHE and RAGU for doctors in Scotland.

Reache North West was set up to help refugee health professionals in the North West register their qualifications in the UK and find work.

The Phoenix Project’s aim is to support displaced doctors and healthcare professionals in their journeys to qualifying for practice in the UK.

The Lincolnshire Refugee Doctor Project – supports refugee doctors back into medical practice in the UK

Investors in People and Culture promote the social and economic inclusion of asylum seekers, refugees and minority communities in North East of England through employment, education and training.

Hidden Talents is a pilot run by Growing Points which has placed refugee women in Leeds in apprenticeships as Clinical Support Workers. It was covered by the Guardian in Oct 2016.