Findings From A Specialized Child Psychiatry Unit For Care of Refugee Children in Istanbul

Veysi Çeri, Can Beşer, Neşe Perdahlı Fiş, Ayşe Arman
2018 Klinik Psikiyatri Dergisi  
Objective: Turkey is the leading refugee hosting country in the world by hosting more than 3,5 million people whom almost half of them are children under age 18. We aimed to investigate psychiatric disorders that seen among kids applied to 'Migrant Children Outpatient Treatment Unit' of Marmara University Pendik Training and Research Hospital which is speacilized to provide psychiatric care for refugee children. Method: We investigated follow up files of 41 children applied to 'Migrant Child
more » ... patient Treatment Unit' between May 2017 to November 2017 retrospectively. Socio-demographical data and diagnoses of children according to DSM-5 classification system were analyzed. Results: Of the 41 children 16 (30,3 %) were girl and 25 (69,7 %) were boy. The average age and time after resettlement were 9.4+4 years and 30.2+15 months respectively. Seventy five percent of parents stated that a person close to them has died, while 87.9 % reported that their children have witnessed to clashes during war. 45 % children stated to have seen a dead or injured person in Syria. Of the children 13 (31.7 %) were diagnosed with anxiety disorders, 13 (31.7 %) with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, 10 (24.4 %) with major depressive disorder, 9 (22.0 %) with post-traumatic stress disorder, 8 with (19.5 %) speech disorders, 7 (17.1 %) with enuresis and 4 (9.8 %) with autism spectrum di-sorder. Discussion: Our findings indicating that refugee children suffer from a wide range of psychiatric disorders which may deteriorate their social and academical functionality and entegration to the new culture years after ressetlement.
doi:10.5505/kpd.2018.57070 fatcat:2qvbwn5qhbcpnpsg2ki6tbl5ta