What are the barriers to access to mental healthcare and the primary needs of asylum seekers? A survey of mental health caregivers and primary care workers

BACKGROUND: We aimed to assess the opinion of primary care workers, social workers, translators and mental health caregivers who work with asylum seekers about the latter’s unmet needs and barriers to access to mental healthcare. METHODS: We used a Likert scale to assess the opinion of 135 primary care workers (general practitioners, nurses, social workers and translators) and mental health caregivers about the proportion of asylum seekers with psychiatric disorders, their priority needs and their main barriers to mental health services. RESULTS: Insufficient access to adequate financial resources, poor housing and security conditions, access to employment, professional training and legal aid were considered as priority needs, as were access to dental and mental healthcare. The main barriers to access to mental healthcare for asylum seekers included a negative representation of psychiatry, fear of being stigmatized by their own community and poor information about existing psychiatric services. CONCLUSIONS: We found a good correlation between the needs reported by healthcare providers and those expressed by the asylum-seeking population in different studies. We discuss the need for greater mobility and accessibility to psychiatric services among this population.