Bradford and Airedale PCT ... Developing the Therapeutic Resource Team's service to asylum seekers and refugees
Summary:
While asylum seeker clients will continue to receive one-to-one counselling support throughout the team, they often need support for longer than the maximum allowed 12 sessions. This is particularly true for people awaiting decisions regarding status, whose mental health can easily deteriorate while they are unable to work and dwell on their traumatic experiences both past and present.
Action:
We have established a weekly support session which works on an assessment-then-drop-in basis. Clients have the opportunity to work with plants and art materials, with the aim of promoting self-help and self-expression. We also offer the opportunity to work on an allotment.
Outcome:
Those who have used the weekly session so far have given positive feedback. The need to ask for re-referral to one-to-one work for these clients has been reduced.
Additional:
Relevant literature in support of this approach includes papers and books emanating from the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture, for example, Jenny Grut & Sonja Linden, The Healing Fields; Dick Blackwell, Counselling and Psychotherapy with Refugees
Contact:
Margaret Trivasse
CTRT
Level 1, Horton Park Centre
99 Horton Park Avenue
Bradford BD7 3EG
01274 322150 Margaret.trivasse@bradford.nhs.uk