The Health Care Centre for Refugees was established in 1979 as a part of the Ministry of Health. The tasks of the centre are to provide a preventive medicine service for refugees upon their arrival in the Netherlands and for those already here; to foster medical, social, and psychological care for refugees by arranging consultations and by advising and consulting with the established health care services; and to record data to permit the evaluation of reception policies for refugees and to increase knowledge of the long-term consequences of repressive violence. At the request of the Health Care Centre for Refugees, the Academic Hospital in Leiden formed, in 1984, a specialist team of clinicians and paramedical staff to provide a joint medical and psychosocial reception and treatment service. The team does clinical research besides providing health care. Since 1982 the Health Care Centre for Refugees has been on the international working group of national rehabilitation centres for torture victims, formed by the Danish centre and those of Canada and France, which meets annually.

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Torture Netherlands priority journal geographic distribution defense mechanism refugee nervous system Delivery of Health Care psychological aspect therapy Letter organization and management psychotherapy health care human Refugees etiology health care delivery