The utilisation of mental health services by children and young people from a refugee background: a systematic literature review

People from refugee background are known to be vulnerable to the development of mental health problems and to suicide because of the pre-migration events they have experienced and the difficulties associated with moving from their homeland to a usually different society. Concerns have been expressed that, in spite of this, young refugees' rates of contact with mental-health services are substantially lower than expected. This systematic literature review aimed to summarize what is known about the use of mental-health services by children and young people of refugee background and to identify factors that may constitute impediments to service use as well as factors that may facilitate access to and engagement with services. This article presents the main findings in relation to mental-health services utilization by children and young people of refugee background. An overview of literature on the general (i.e. adults or not-youth specific) refugee population has also been included to provide, where possible, a comparison between the former and the latter. A key finding of this review is that while countries of resettlement have introduced several policies and programs for refugee children and young people, these are based on very little evidence, thus more research is urged.