Skip to main content

Advertisement

Log in

Psychiatric Resident Participation in an Asylum Clinic: a Single-Institutional Experience

  • In Brief Report
  • Published:
Academic Psychiatry Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Objective

This study describes the experiences of adult psychiatry residents working in an established faculty-led asylum clinic within a community-based, academic residency program at the Cambridge Health Alliance.

Methods

Eighteen psychiatry residents who participated in the asylum clinic were sent electronic surveys asking about their background and experience. Respondents’ responses were collected anonymously.

Results

Sixteen out of 18 (89%) trainees responded. Thirteen respondents had a personal history with immigration. Fifty-three percent of residents wanted to utilize their professional standing to advance moral good. Writing up affidavits was noted to be challenging by nine (60%) of 15 trainees. Ninety-four percent (15/16) of trainees noted that they would be willing to perform future evaluations. Most noted that performing evaluations had a significant impact on their clinical practice and their conceptualization of their own roles as psychiatrists.

Conclusions

Participating in asylum evaluations impacts residents’ sense of themselves as psychiatrists and expands their views about psychiatrists’ roles.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. The Istanbul Protocol is the first set of international guidelines for documentation of torture and its consequences.

References

  1. UNHCR. Global trends forced displacement in 2016. 2016. http://www.unhcr.org/globaltrends2016/.

  2. Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. United Nations, Treaty Series 1951;189:137.

  3. Zong J, Batalova J. Refugees and asylees in the United States. Migration Policy Institute; 2017. www.migrationpolicy.org/article/refugees-and-asylees-united-states.

  4. Silove D, Sinnerbrink I, Field A, Manicavasagar V, Steel Z. Anxiety, depression and PTSD in asylum-seekers: associations with pre-migration trauma and post-migration stressors. Br J Psychiatry. 1997;170:351–7.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Gerritsen AA, Bramsen I, Devillé W, et al. Physical and mental health of Afghan, Iranian and Somali asylum seekers and refugees living in the Netherlands. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol. 2006;41:18–26.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. PHR. The asylum program. http://www.ncdsv.org/images/PHR_Asylum-Network-Overview-for-Health-Professionals.pdf.

  7. Griffith JL, Kohrt B, Dyer A, Polatin P, Morse M, Jabr S, et al. Training psychiatrists for global mental health: cultural psychiatry, collaborative inquiry, and ethics of alterity. Acad Psychiatry. 2016;40:701–6.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  8. Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education. The psychiatry milestone project. 2015. https://www.acgme.org/acgmeweb/Portals/0/PDFs/Milestones/PsychiatryMilestones.pdf.

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to J. Wesley Boyd.

Ethics declarations

The survey was approved by the Cambridge Health Alliance Institutional Review Board.

Disclosures

On behalf of all authors, the corresponding author states that there is no conflict of interest.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Patel, N.A., Sreshta, N., Frank, A. et al. Psychiatric Resident Participation in an Asylum Clinic: a Single-Institutional Experience. Acad Psychiatry 43, 56–60 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40596-018-0925-3

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40596-018-0925-3

Keywords

Navigation