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Principles of the Mental Health Assessment of Refugee Children and Adolescents

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Child, Adolescent and Family Refugee Mental Health

Abstract

This is the first of two chapters that provides a practical guide to assessing the mental health needs and strengths of refugee children and adolescents. This chapter focuses on principles that are critical to understanding how to engage with children (0–18 years old) and their families in a mental health assessment. We will discuss key principles to consider when engaging in a mental health assessment and discuss how the refugee experience may affect the process logistically, socially, and psychologically. While this chapter is focused on the individual assessment of refugee child and adolescent mental health, we want to highlight that underlying the individual assessment is an awareness that the individual is embedded and strongly influenced by family (Chap. 15), community (Chap. 7), and culture (Chap. 2), surrounding the child. Individual assessments should thus be done in concert with community mental health and psychosocial assessment (Chap. 7) in this book.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The 1951 Refugee Convention defines a refugee as “someone who is unable or unwilling to return to their country of origin owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion.”

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry, George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA

    Suzan J. Song

  2. Public Health Section (Division of Resilience and Solutions), United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Geneva, Switzerland

    Peter Ventevogel

Authors
  1. Suzan J. Song
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  2. Peter Ventevogel
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry, George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA

    Suzan J. Song

  2. Public Health Section (Division of Resilience and Solutions), United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Genève, Geneve, Switzerland

    Peter Ventevogel

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Song, S.J., Ventevogel, P. (2020). Principles of the Mental Health Assessment of Refugee Children and Adolescents. In: Song, S., Ventevogel, P. (eds) Child, Adolescent and Family Refugee Mental Health. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-45278-0_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-45278-0_5

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-45277-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-45278-0

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