With unprecedented numbers of displaced persons worldwide, mental health clinicians in high-income countries will increasingly encounter refugee and asylum-seeking patients, many of whom have experienced significant adversity before and after their migration. This paper presents a summary of the recent evidence on the assessment and treatment of refugees across the lifespan to inform clinicians’ approaches to care of refugee patients in mental health care settings. Assessment and interventions for refugees are grounded in an ecosystemic approach which considers not only pre-migratory trauma, but social, familial, and cultural determinants of mental health in the host country. Evidence for psychotherapy and pharmacological treatments are reviewed, highlighting promising interventions while acknowledging that further research is needed. Ultimately, serving refugees necessitates a biopsychosocial approach that engages clinicians as medical experts, therapists, and advocates. © 2017, © The Author(s) 2017.

adults post-migratory stress Common mental disorders Children Refugees PTSD

patient care cultural anthropology social psychology refugee mental health service mental health human Refugees social aspect social determinants of health Mental Health Services ethnology procedures mental health care Mental Disorders screening high income country psychotherapy asylum seeker mental disease Humans family Adolescent juvenile Review interpreter service adult medical expert neuroleptic agent lifespan Psychotropic Drugs eye movement desensitization and reprocessing psychotrauma medical decision making psychotropic agent decision making Child