Making Connections Report

The University of Leicester Department of Clinical Psychology held a Conference on the 9^th of July 2008 with the theme, Making Connections : Refugee Experiences and Psychological Perspectives.

A large number of delegates, the majority of whom were trainee clinical psychologists, as well as psychologists, lecturers and representatives from voluntary sector organizations attended. They were first treated to a delectable buffet lunch after which they thronged into the Frank and Katherine May lecture theatre, the venue for the main event.

Kate Partridge and Gareth Morgan, a trainee clinical psychologists at the University of Leicester warmly welcomed all in attendance. They gave definitions of three key words, asylum seeker, refugee and refused asylum seeker and a breakdown of statistics about them in this country. According to the Home Office 2008 statistics, 33 865 asylum seekers were awaiting the outcome of the claim by the end of the first quarter of 2008.Figures for refused asylum seekers are less clear. A 2004 audit estimated numbers to be between 155 000 and 283 500 (National Audit Office 2005), however at the end of the first quarter of 2008 only 9365 refused asylum seekers were receiving government assistance with housing and finance (Home Office 2008). The Disparities in these figures suggest high rates of destitution.

UK hosts only 2.7% of the world’s refugees and asylum seekers(1% of the total number of displaced people) [UNHCR2008] ranking it 8^th in the world behind Pakistan, Iran and Germany. A recent independent enquiry of the British asylum system concluded that the ‘treatment of asylum seekers falls seriously below the standards to be expected of a humane and civilized society. (Independent Asylum Commission 2008). The Commission’s Safe Return report called for all failed asylum seekers to receive basic levels of state support and for Section 4 support to be scrapped to end destitution. It said those who cannot return should be given temporary work permit after six months so they can support themselves while they remain in the UK.

Asylum Monologues

A heart-rending performance aptly entitled ‘Asylum Monologue’ was given by Actors for Human Rights (formerly known as Actors for Refugees). The original network was formed in Melbourne, Australia in September 2001 with the UK network launch in June 2006 at Amnesty International.

Actors for Human Rights now consists of well over 300 professional actors and musicians and is dedicated to drawing public attention to a range of human rights concerns. The actors and musicians involved donate their time and their public profile to encourage public acceptance of human rights and to give voice to people whose basic human rights have been violated.

The Asylum Monologues production exposed the disturbing effects of the UK’s asylum system as three asylum seekers from Zimbabwe, Rwanda and Uganda respectively gave their traumatic personal experiences and testimonies of mental torture at the mercy of the system. The true meaning of being displaced in UK, combined with public opinion , political statements and statistical fact was disseminated.

All three asylum seeker accounts had a similar and common underlying factors. They portrayed experiences of living in a limbo, constant fear of being put in detention, stressful isolation, neglect, feelings of being marginalized, loss of mental skills because of stress and loss of ability to function.

One asylum seeker from Uganda described his life as that of someone being monitored and followed by an authoritative being with a stick; not being allowed to work, reporting weekly to the immigration centre, receiving letters from the Home Office threatening to remove him and being sent to a detention centre.

He revealed that life in a detention centre is frightening and terrifying. Being forced to live with people whom one doesn’t know; people from different backgrounds; being searched every now and then; seeing men with keys is so unsettling. Re-living the ordeals he suffered in his own country plus this kind of torture depressed him to the core especially having committed no crime. Surely a week in detention is enough to drive a weak mind into its lowest ebb.

Asylum seekers face a myriad of complex and dreadful experiences in this country which include them suffering from racism, prejudice and gross misunderstanding of their plight. As a result they have significant mental and emotional difficulties. To rub salt to their already open wounds, they feel increasingly isolated and aggrieved when they are pressed to recount every detail of their traumatic accounts of horror to the immigration officials and home office workers on several times at various stages of their asylum processes. Much to the asylum seekers’ bewilderment, the officials decide not to believe their stories and go on to dismiss them as frivolous, concocted and false. The whole process of assessment is so harsh such that it flagrantly violates their human rights and strips them of their dignity.

Not many facts are known about refugees and asylum seekers by the British public and this is mainly because the media does not give accurate and sensible information about them. Some newspaper headlines and stories give an impression that asylum seekers are ‘swamping our shores in large numbers just to cream off our benefit system.’ Yet in actual fact that is completely not true.

Talk by Renos Papadopoulos

A Consultant Clinical Psychologist and Systemic Family Therapist at the Tavistock Clinic, Renos gave a talk on Refugee Trauma and beyond; resilience and adversity-activated development during the second session of the conference. He is also a director of the Centre for Trauma, Asylum and Refugees at the University of Essex.

Adopting a systematic and holistic approach to the multi-faceted experience of ‘refugeedom’, Renos has both worked with refugees and survivors of political violence in a number of countries, as well as publishing extensively around and working therapeutically with this client group.

His talk examined the nature of the refugee phenomenon and located the position of mental health professionals in relation to it. The various uses of the word ‘trauma’ were explored and its application to the refugees’ context examined. He proposed that refugees’ response to adversity is not limited to being traumatized but includes resilience and Adversity-Activated Development(AAD) – the idea that through extremely painful experiences it is possible for individuals to grow and develop as a person. Particular emphasis was given to the distinction between resilience and AAD. The usefulness of the ‘Trauma Grid’ in the therapeutic process with refugees was also discussed.

Trauma Grid

In order to systematize the variety of responses to adversity, Renos devised a ‘Trauma Grid’ tabulating the various combinations of trauma effects across different levels and perspectives. The grid offers a framework of three possible effects of trauma – negative(Psychiatric Disorders with the common one being Post Traumatic Stress Disorder; Distressful Psychological Reactions; Ordinary Human Suffering ; neutral (resilience); and positive (Adversity Activated Development.

The grid assists the therapist to hold in mind the totality of each individual’s experiences as they relate to the wider network of interrelationships across the different defining contexts.

Therapists need to respect deeply the pain, disorientation, losses, trauma and all the other negative effects that refugees have from their exposure to adversity and it is in the context of this respect that they can then introduce their observations about resilient and Adversity Activated Development (AAD) functions; this needs to be done at the right time and using highly sensitive and appropriate language within the context of a suitable therapeutic interaction with refugees.

Renos suggests the Trauma Grid provides a framework for therapists to identify, in a comprehensive and systematic way, the various possible responses and functions of each refugee, family and community society/culture.

Report by Elisha Shamba

http://www.iceandfire.couk/afhr/index.html

http://www.unhcr.org

http://www.independentasylumcommission.org.uk

http://www.refugee-action.org