Refugees: Half of them need psychological help
All content is checked by medical journalists.They suffer from the consequences of severe trauma or depression: at least half of the refugees in Germany are seriously mentally ill. Experts from the Federal Chamber of Psychotherapists (BPtK) estimate the number of acutely mentally ill refugees who have come to Germany in search of protection at up to 80,000 people. In most cases, medication is not enough to alleviate or cure the suffering. But only four percent of the sick receive psychotherapeutic help. The Chamber assesses the mental health care of asylum seekers as “shamefully bad”.
“Mental illness is one of the most common illnesses among refugees. As a rule, they are in urgent need of treatment, ”says BPtK President Dr. Dietrich Munz. For example, 40 to 50 percent of the mentally ill refugees suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). “These people are often suicidal. 40 percent of them already had plans to take their own lives or have even tried to kill themselves, ”the statement said.
Mental health care is "shameful"
PTSD is triggered by events that are experienced as life-threatening or catastrophic and which plunge people into deep despair. Those who fall ill experience the traumatic situation again and again, in the form of nightmares, as lightning-like images or film-like scenes (flashbacks). These memories are so intense that the person concerned relives the traumatic event. "PTSD sufferers urgently need psychotherapy," explains BPtK President Munz. "It is shameful that people with such severe and painful psychological injuries almost never receive adequate help."
Torture, rape, sham executions
Most often, PTSB occurs when the trauma is caused by other people: from firearms and grenades, hunger and thirst while in custody, physical torture, electric shock, and sexual humiliation. Some have witnessed executions or rape, or have been psychologically broken by death threats and sham executions. Many refugee children also suffer from the serious disorder.
Misunderstood need
The BPtK is therefore urgently calling for the care of mentally ill refugees to be improved. Currently, the decision whether to grant an asylum seeker psychotherapy often takes months. In most cases, clerks and doctors who are neither trained nor further educated in mental illness assess whether psychotherapy is necessary or not. The result is frequent misjudgments: Many people fail to recognize the urgency of treatment, while others recommend medication even though they need psychotherapy. Munz assesses current practice as “grossly inadequate”. "In future, applications for psychotherapy should only be checked by qualified experts."
Private therapists should also be allowed to treat
Only after 15 months can refugees claim benefits from statutory health insurance - and thus also psychotherapy. Still, most of them go untreated. Because the psychotherapists who work in the psychosocial centers for refugees and victims of torture are usually not registered with the health insurance fund. The same goes for many therapists who run private practices.
The Chamber proposes to authorize these two groups of therapists for treatment and billing with the statutory health insurances. This would be possible due to the licensing regulation for doctors. Munz explains: "The treatment of mentally ill refugees could be significantly improved in this way, quickly and unbureaucratically." (Cf)
Source: Statement by the Federal Chamber of Psychotherapists (BPtK) from 16.09.2015
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