The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health and wellbeing of refugees and asylum seekers-A Narrative Review of the Literature

Ghassan El Tatary; Neeraj Gill

doi:10.1177/10398562221131154

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health and wellbeing of refugees and asylum seekers-A Narrative Review of the Literature

Australas Psychiatry. 2022 Dec;30(6):728-731. doi: 10.1177/10398562221131154. Epub 2022 Oct 12.

Authors

Ghassan El Tatary^{1

2}, Neeraj Gill^{3

4

5}

Affiliations

¹ Advanced trainee in Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists, Gold Coast, QLD, Australia.
² 585497Lives Lived Well, headspace Early Psychosis, Gold Coast, QLD, Australia.
³ Mental Health and Specialist Services, Gold Coast Health, Gold Coast, QLD, Australia.
⁴ School of Medicine and Dentistry, 97562Griffith University, Southport, QLD, Australia.
⁵ Health Research Institute, University of Canberra, Canberra, ACT, Australia.

Abstract

Objective: To identify the factors affecting refugees and asylum seekers mental health and wellbeing during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods: A narrative review of available international research literature from January 2020 to June 2021 was conducted to identify these factors.

Results: Seven factors were identified: pre-existing physical health vulnerabilities, pre-existing mental health vulnerabilities, environmental, social, cultural-specific, economic and legal/welfare challenges.

Conclusion: Multiple interacting bio-psycho-socio-economic-cultural-ecological factors lead to greater impact of COVID-19 pandemic on refugee and asylum seekers wellbeing than the general population.

Keywords: Asylum seekers; COVID-19 pandemic; mental health; refugees; wellbeing.

Publication types

Review

MeSH terms

COVID-19*
Humans
Mental Health
Pandemics
Refugees* / psychology