Psychiatrische Praxis
Volume 43, Issue 3, 2016, Pages 165-171

Asylum Law and Mental Health: An Interdisciplinary Analysis of the Coaction of Medical and Legal Aspects [Asylrecht und psychische Gesundheit: Eine interdisziplinäre Analyse des Zusammenwirkens medizinischer und juristischer Aspekte] (Article)

Hanewald B.* , Gieseking J. , Vogelbusch O. , Markus I. , Gallhofer B. , Knipper M.
  • a Zentrum für Psychiatrie, Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen, Germany
  • b Refugee Law Clinic, Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen, Germany
  • c Zentrum für Psychiatrie, Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen, Germany
  • d Institut für Geschichte der Medizin, AG Kultur, Migration and Global Health, Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen, Germany
  • e Zentrum für Psychiatrie, Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen, Germany
  • f Institut für Geschichte der Medizin, AG Kultur, Migration and Global Health, Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen, Germany

Abstract

Objective: Interdisciplinary analysis of the consequences of laws and legal practice for mental health conditions of asylum seekers and psychiatric care. Methods: Based on the case study of a Kurdish woman with complex trauma-related psychiatric disorder, who had been in psychiatric hospital care for 25 months, the legal and medical facts are exposed, followed by a discussion referring to theoretical approaches from medical anthropology. Results: Immigration laws and legal practice can have harmful consequences, which can be interpreted as "structural violence". Conclusion: In case of traumatized refugees, the coaction of legal and medical aspects has to be acknowledged seriously by the medical, legal and political parts involved. © Georg Thieme Verlag KG.

Author Keywords

Migration Structural violence posttraumatic stress disorder Asylum seeker Immigration law

Index Keywords

Kurd (people) Germany law refugee mental health service Islam human immigration ethics Refugees comorbidity Ethics, Medical medical ethics medical anthropology length of stay Mental Health Services ethnology mental health care interdisciplinary research mental disease asylum seeker Humans medicolegal aspect intersectoral collaboration mental patient psychology case report female Mentally Ill Persons Article legislation and jurisprudence adult migration Turkey case study Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic mental hospital Emigration and Immigration interdisciplinary communication
Link
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-84945161875&doi=10.1055%2fs-0035-1552730&partnerID=40&md5=b67770694c46451beb190cf8f15d250a
DOI: 10.1055/s-0035-1552730
ISSN: 03034259
Cited by: 3
Original Language: German