Almost 70,000 unaccompanied children and adolescents have sought refuge in Germany since the beginning of the current migration crisis. The majority originate from Afghanistan, Syria, Eritrea, Iraq and Somalia. Many of the unaccompanied minor refugees (UMR) are severely affected by the difficult experiences in their home countries and on their perilous trek to Europe and regularly present with symptoms of posttraumatic stress, depression and or anxiety. Since 2012, the 24-h emergency department at the kbo-Heckscher Clinic, a large public hospital providing child and adolescent psychiatry, psychosomatic care and psychotherapy services for the region of Upper Bavaria, has been seeing steadily increasing numbers of UMR. In addition to coping with peaking utilization rates, the emergency department has had to develop new UMR-specific intervention strategies and treatment programs in order to appropriately serve this new, very challenging clientele. Retrospectively collected and evaluated data for 151 UMR patients treated in 2015 on the acute wards are presented. The high rate of emergencies and crisis interventions recorded reflects the severe psychological stress and pressure most of the UMR have endured and the severity of the psychiatric conditions. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2016.

Post-traumatic stress disorders Life change events Mental health Minor refugees Emigration and immigration Child behavior disorders

anxiety personal experience Afghanistan depression Eritrea refugee unaccompanied minor refugee Syrian Arab Republic human life event mental stress Iraq coping behavior emergency ward psychosocial care psychotherapy Adolescent crisis intervention public hospital child psychiatry Article minor (person) health care utilization migration posttraumatic stress disorder Somalia mental hospital psychotrauma Child