Refugee groups experience issues that can affect any community, however, research and data available have highlighted that refugees are particularly disadvantaged in relation to mental health experience and access as a result of political, administrative, language and cultural factors. Discourses on mental health in the context of Western interpretations are not sufficient to understand refugees' interpretations of their own needs, perceptions and experiences of mental health in the UK. This study was established to assess the Somali community's own perception of mental illness and some of the barriers to accessing and utilising services in the London Borough of Camden. The findings are based on qualitative and quantitative methods. Data on service utilisation was drawn from data on users of the St Pancras Refugee Centre, semi-structured interviews from a sample of seven Somali service users from the above project and with representatives of all the eight Somali community organisations based in the London Borough of Camden. The results indicate that Somali project users make considerably less use of mental health services on the basis of cultural factors and due to pre-occupation with post-migration stressors including immigration status, housing, social and socio-economic factors. This article places these findings within the context of the structures and organisations of the mental health system, and in turn adds to the knowledge base on good practice and services delivery. © 2006 Radcliffe Publishing.

Somali Mental health Refugees Transcultural mental health Services provision Camden Inequalitis

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