Due to the civil war occurring in Syria that started in 2011, the world has witnessed one of the largest refugee crisis with over 4 million Syrians seeking asylum in other countries and over 12 million Syrians have been displaced from their homes. Refugee camps were unprepared with having refugees of this scale causing the camps to be severely crowded and undersupplied. These conditions generate stress for the refugees since they would start to believe the situation will not improve thus having the mental health of the Syrians at risk to deteriorate. The research report of International Medical Corps showed the mental health of Syrians located in refugee camps and in Syria are already suffering from disorders such as severe emotional, behavioral, …show more content…
Therefore it’s of utmost importance to provide the refugees in the camps with resources to aid them to deal with their mental health.
While living in their country the refugees may have experienced traumatic events from which they fled from such as witnessing dead bodies or a bomb attack which could affect their mental health (UFS 1). Unfortunately, these conditions have the possibility of continuing on in their journey of escaping from the country. For example travelling through the Mediterranean Sea, having the risk of drowning as the world saw with the little boy washed up ashore. All of these situations are stressors, a stimulus or event that produces stress to the individual, which damages their mental health. Upon arrival to refugee camps there is a host of other stressors awaiting them and with some camps lacking sufficient resources it can negatively impact their mental health (UFS 1). Interviews conducted by the International Medical Corps to different refugees located in four countries have found different stressors that have been classified into three major groups. One of those stressors is security concerns, which includes obtaining legal status, protection in …show more content…
Professor Papadopoulos, from the University of Essex has worked as a consultant to the United Nations and with refugees from different countries experiencing political violence. Papadopoulos has found a suitable perspective to utilize for the mental health of refugees which is psychological trauma. Therefore post-traumatic stress disorder is the only category that is based on an external event: the current conflict in Syria. The professor explains how trauma may have different consequences on an individual, however the dominant effect of trauma is negative. The professor categorizes the possible effects into three categories negative, neutral and positive; however the categories are not exclusive from one another. Also there are a variety of variables such as gender, position of power, and their perspective of the events, that could affect the way the refugees react to the trauma. The first effects are negative which leads to psychological injury and the professor further breaks down the category by the severity of the effect: ordinary human suffering, distressful psychological reaction and psychiatric disorder. Current research from the International Medical Corps along with the interviews conducted have found severe emotional disorders such as depression and anxiety to be the most common disorder in the different countries researched. In children, the medical