Primary Care Screening Methods and Outcomes for Asylum Seekers in New York City.

Effective screening in primary care among asylum-seekers in the US is critical as this population grows. This study aimed to evaluate disease prevalence and screening methods in this high-risk group. Two hundred ten new clients from 51 countries, plus Tibet, who were accepted into a program for asylum seekers from 2012 to 2014 were included. Screening rates and outcomes for infectious, non-communicable, and mental illnesses were evaluated. Screening rates were highest for PTSD, depression, hepatitis B, and latent tuberculosis. Seventy-one percent of clients screened positive for depression and 55 % for PTSD, followed by latent tuberculosis (41 %), hypertension (10 %), hepatitis B (9.4 %), and HIV (0.8 %). Overall screening rates were high. Point of care testing was more effective than testing that required a repeat visit. A large psychiatric and infectious disease burden was identified. These findings can inform future primary care screening efforts for asylum seekers in the US.

Pre-Migration Trauma Exposure and Mental Health Functioning among Central American Migrants Arriving at the US Border.

In recent years, increasing numbers of families and individuals have arrived at the U.S. border from Central America, in particular, from Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala. This study sought to examine pre-migration trauma exposure and current mental health functioning of migrant families arriving at the U.S. border from the Northern Triangle region, with specific attention to the reasons offered for leaving their home country and the frequency with which migrant families appear to satisfy legal criteria for asylum We interviewed 234 adults in McAllen, Texas, using a structured interview and standardized questionnaires to assess exposure to trauma prior to migration, reasons for leaving their home country and symptoms of posttraumatic stress and depression. We found that 191 participants (83%) cited violence as a reason for fleeing their country, 119 individuals (69%) did not report the events to the police out of fear of gang-related retaliation or police corruption, and 90% (n = 204) reported being afraid to return to their native country. Based on self-report symptom checklists, 32% of the sample met diagnostic criteria for PTSD (n = 51), 24% for depression (n = 36), and 17% for both disorders (n = 25). Examining these data against the criteria for asylum in the U.S., we found that 70% of the overall sample (n = 159) met criteria for asylum, including 80% of those from El Salvador, 74% from Honduras, and 41% from Guatemala. These findings suggest that the majority of Central American migrants arriving at the U.S. border have significant mental health symptoms in response to violence and persecution, and warrant careful consideration for asylum status.

Predictors of suicidal ideation in treatment-seeking survivors of torture.

In this study, we examined sociodemographic, persecutor identity, torture, and postmigration variables associated with suicidal ideation in a clinical sample of 267 immigrant survivors of torture who have resettled in New York City. The purpose of this study was to identify variables associated with increased risk for suicidal ideation in survivors of torture before they receive legal, psychological, or medical services for torture-related needs. Results from a binary logistic regression model identified a combination of 3 variables associated with current suicidal ideation at intake into the program. Being female, having not submitted an application for asylum, and a history of rape or sexual assault were significantly associated with suicidal ideation at intake, when also controlling for several other important variables. The final model explained 21.4% of variation in reported suicidal ideation at intake. The discussion will focus on the importance of conducting a thorough assessment of suicidal ideation in refugees and survivors of torture.

Death Rates among Detained Immigrants in the United States.

The United States system of immigrant detention centers has been the subject of considerable scrutiny with respect to health care of detainees. We sought to characterize the rates and types of deaths that have occurred within this system between the years 2003-2015. We analyzed a file of detainee deaths released by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security as part of a freedom of information request. Between 2003 and 2015, 150 deaths were recorded. During this time period, the annual rate of death among detainees dropped dramatically, whether measured by annual admissions or by person years of exposure. The most common causes of death were cardiovascular, cancer and suicide. More research is needed to adequately account for the contributors to these declining rates of death in immigration detention settings.

Health Outcomes of Traumatic Brain Injury Among Refugee Survivors of Torture.

OBJECTIVE: To compare spontaneous reporting of health complaints in a sample of refugee survivors of torture with a history of moderate/severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) with survivors of torture without TBI and analyze the contribution of posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms to health outcomes. PARTICIPANTS: Treatment-seeking refugee survivors of torture with a moderate/severe TBI (n = 85) and a control group (n = 72) of survivors who suffered a physical injury during their persecution but had no history of a head injury. MEASURES: Health outcomes included a self-report of general physical health (scale 1-5), number of medical visits, and a scaled score of the number of health complaints. The Harvard Trauma Questionnaire (HTQ) was used to measure posttraumatic stress disorder. RESULTS: Moderate/severe TBI was associated with more health complaints but not higher HTQ scores. TBI and HTQ scores are independently associated with a greater number of health complaints, and an interaction between TBI and HTQ scores suggests that the relationship between moderate/severe TBI and the number of health complaints strengthened with increased posttraumatic stress disorder symptom severity. CONCLUSIONS: Health complaints may be a common expression of psychological trauma, and service providers should be certain to explore both medical and psychological contributors when assessing refugee survivors of torture.

Lessons in health and human rights: providing dental care to torture survivors.

New York City has a large number of individuals seeking asylem who are victims of torture. In addition to dental needs, which include cases of severe trauma to the mouth, these individuasl require special support because of their fear of contact by those they do not know. A cooperative program between the New York University College of Dentistry and Bellevue NYU, known as the Program for Survivors of Torture, is described.

Effects of post-migration factors on PTSD outcomes among immigrant survivors of political violence.

This study examined the predictors of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in a clinical sample of 875 immigrant survivors of political violence resettled in the United States, with a specific aim of comparing the relative predictive power of pre-migration and post-migration experiences. Results from a hierarchical OLS regression indicated that pre-migration experiences such as rape/sexual assault were significantly associated with worse PTSD outcomes, as were post-migration factors such as measures of financial and legal insecurity. Post-migration variables, which included immigration status in the US, explained significantly more variance in PTSD outcomes than premigration variables alone. Discussion focused on the importance of looking at postmigration living conditions when treating trauma in this population.

Diversion of patients with mental illness from court-ordered care to immigration detention.

Over 350,000 immigrants are detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) each year. An unknown fraction of these detainees have serious mental illnesses and are taken into ICE custody even though a criminal court has ordered them to enter inpatient mental health care. The authors report findings from 16 such cases in which they have provided advocacy over the past four years. In some cases, they were able to secure release of detainees into inpatient care in community (nonforensic) settings, which involved substantial logistical challenges. Given the well-documented concerns about securing adequate care for ICE detainees with mental illness, a logical policy change would be for ICE to allow these patients to enter court-ordered inpatient care. This move would improve care for patients and would also unburden ICE from the untenable proposition of caring for patients that the criminal justice system has deemed unfit for incarceration.

Posttraumatic idioms of distress among Darfur refugees: Hozun and Majnun.

Although psychosocial programming is seen as essential to the humanitarian response to the Darfur conflict, aid groups lack culturally-appropriate assessment instruments for monitoring and evaluation. The current study used an emic-etic integrated approach to: (i) create a culturally-appropriate measure of distress (Study 1), and (ii) test the measure in structured interviews of 848 Darfuris living in two refugee camps in Chad (Study 2). Traditional healers identified two trauma-related idioms, hozun and majnun, which shared features with but were not identical to posttraumatic stress disorder and depression. Measures of these constructs were reliable and correlated with trauma, loss, and functional impairment. Exploratory factor analysis resulted in empirical symptom clusters conceptually parallel to general Western psychiatric constructs. Findings are discussed in terms of their implications for psychosocial programming.

Medical advocacy on behalf of detained immigrants.

Detention of immigrants by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is a rapidly growing form of incarceration in the U.S. with almost 400,000 people detained in 2008 (Schriro in Immigration and Customs Enforcement, 2009, http://www.ice.gov/doclib/091005_ice_detention_report-final.pdf ). ICE detainees are predominantly from Mexico and Latin America and only a small minority of detainees are asylum seekers. Immigrant detainees lack a legal guarantee of medical care (unlike criminal arrestees and prisoners) and face challenges in receiving medical care, particularly those with chronic medical conditions (Venters and Keller in J Health Care Poor Underserved 20:951-957, 2009). Although we and others have long been involved in advocating for detained asylum seekers, few resources are dedicated to medical advocacy for the broader population of ICE detainees. At the NYU Center for Health and Human Rights (CHHR), a program of medical advocacy was initiated in 2007 on behalf of ICE detainees focused on improvement of care in detention and medical parole. Our preliminary efforts reveal a pressing need for more involvement by physicians and other health advocates in this area.

Screening for Torture: A Narrative Checklist Comparing Legal Definitions in a Torture Treatment Clinic.

Torture has been defined most precisely in legal contexts. Practitioners who work with torture survivors and researchers who study torture have frequently cited legal definitions, particularly those in the United States' Torture Victims Relief Act, the United Nations Convention against Torture, or the World Medical Association's Declaration of Tokyo. Few practitioners have operationalized these definitions and applied them in their practice. We describe how a New York City torture treatment clinic used a coding checklist that operationalizes the definitions, and present results. We found that in practice these definitions were nested; that using guidelines for applying the definitions in practice altered the number of cases meeting criteria for these definitions; and that the severity of psychological symptoms did not differ between those who were tortured and those who were not under any definition. We propose theoretical and practical implications of these findings.

Resilience in trauma-exposed refugees: the moderating effect of coping style on resilience variables.

Research with survivors of torture has generated considerable variability in prevalence rates of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Multiple risk and resilience factors may affect this variability, increasing or decreasing the likelihood of experiencing psychological distress. This study sought to investigate the effect of several such resilience factors, coping style, social support, cognitive appraisals, and social comparisons on PTSD symptom severity. Furthermore, this study examined whether coping style moderated the relationship between resilience variables and PTSD symptoms. Seventy-five torture survivors completed an intake interview and several self-report measures upon entry into a treatment program for survivors of torture. Results indicated that emotion-focused coping styles significantly moderated the relationship between cognitive appraisal and social comparison variables and PTSD, and usually increased the likelihood of developing severe symptoms. These results indicate that the salience of resilience variables may differ depending on the individual's coping style, which present implications for clinical practice with torture survivors.

Rates and impact of trauma and current stressors among Darfuri refugees in Eastern Chad.

Darfur refugees face hardships associated with chronic displacement, including lack of basic needs and safety concerns. Psychiatric research on refugees has focused on trauma, but daily stressors may contribute more to variance in distress. This article reports rates of past trauma and current stressors among Darfur refugees and gauges the contribution of each to psychological distress and functional impairment. A representative sample of 848 Darfuris in 2 refugee camps were interviewed about traumatic events, stressors faced in the camps, psychological distress, and functional impairment. Basic needs and safety concerns were more strongly correlated with measures of distress (rs = .19-.31) than were war-related traumatic events (rs = .09-.20). Hierarchical regression supported models in which effects of trauma on distress were mediated by current stressors. Although war-related traumatic events are the initial causes of refugees' hardship, findings suggest that the day-to-day challenges and concerns in camps mediate psychological distress associated with these events.

The immigration detention health plan: an acute care model for a chronic care population.

Immigration detention is the fastest-growing form of incarceration in the U.S. Numerous reports by advocacy groups and detainees themselves have alleged substandard medical care for detainees. We have undertaken an analysis of the health plan that regulates reimbursement of much of detainee health care. We conclude that this plan may place detainees at risk of receiving inadequate care, particularly if they have chronic medical problems or would benefit from routine health screening exams. We present several concrete measures that could immediately improve the level of medical care afforded to this vulnerable population.

HIV screening and care for immigration detainees.

The detention of immigrants in the United States is a rapidly expanding endeavor with serious health consequences for the detainees. This detainee population represents non-criminal immigrants who are detained because of a visa violation or other immigration issue but who are not charged with any crime and do not enter the criminal justice system. HIV-positive detainees are especially vulnerable to lapses in proper medical care, and press reports have highlighted deaths and adverse medical outcomes among HIV-positive detainees. We have examined reports on detainee health issues published by numerous groups and conducted our own analysis of the health plan used to govern much of the specialty care for detainees who are HIV positive. We conclude that the system of immigration detention in the US fails to adequately screen detainees for HIV and delivers a substandard level of medical care to those with HIV. We provide several specific recommendations for improving screening and medical care among this highly vulnerable population.

Entering exile: trauma, mental health, and coping among Tibetan refugees arriving in Dharamsala, India.

Each year thousands of Tibetans escape Chinese-controlled Tibet. The authors present findings on the experiences, coping strategies, and psychological distress (depression, anxiety, somatization, and posttraumatic stress disorder) of 769 Tibetan refugees arriving in Dharamsala, India (2003-2004). Distress increased significantly with greater trauma exposure. However, despite a high prevalence of potentially traumatizing events, levels of psychological distress were extremely low. Coping activity (primarily religious) and subjective appraisals of trauma severity appeared to mediate the psychological effects of trauma exposure. The potential impact of other variables, including culturally determined attitudes about trauma and timing of assessment, are discussed.

The effects of torture-related injuries on long-term psychological distress in a Punjabi Sikh sample.

Torture survivors often report chronic debilitating physical and psychological distress. Prior research on the relationship between physical and psychological trauma suggests that the 2 are not independent. Injury sustained during torture may increase the likelihood of subsequent distress as either a moderator or mediator. For long-term psychopathology in a sample of Punjabi Sikh survivors of human rights violations (N = 116), chronic injuries mediated the path between torture and posttraumatic stress disorder, specifically the severity of numbing symptoms. Although injuries were associated with major depression, torture was not, and injuries did not moderate the relationship between major depression and torture. Chronic injuries may represent trauma severity or persistent traumatic cues. These findings emphasize connections between physical and psychological trauma and the importance of an interdisciplinary approach to torture treatment.