The Syrian refugees: The need for trauma based services

53% of the 62 participants of the two Istanbul EMDR training organised by HAP were Syrian. We felt it is a unique opportunity to assess the needs of Syrian refugees they are working with. We asked all the participants who are all mental health professionals to complete an Arabic translation of ‘The Need for Trauma-based Services Questionnaire’ in these trainings. All participants completed some quantitative but mainly qualitative questions. The rest of the participants on the course were from Iraq (18%), Jordan (16%), Egypt (7%) and others from Palestine, Sudan & Libya (6%).The results of comparing the needs reported by Syrian mental health professionals showed higher prevalence of PTSD seen by the Syrian mental health professionals (72% compared with 56% in the clients seen by the rest of participants). Also, the Syrian mental health professionals could only meet 34% (SD=17.1) of the needs of their client who suffer from PTSD. The unmet need for trauma therapy was reported as 100% by these professionals. The discussion tried to throw light of the needs of the Syrian refugees arriving the UK used through both the qualitative and quantitative parts of the results to draw a picture of the very dif cult situation these refugees are coming from and who EMDR can be used to help these refugees be a productive part of the British society.

Conference

English

Walid Abdul Hamid

Hamid, W. A. (2017, March). The Syrian refugees: The need for trauma based services. Presentation (Sian, Chair) at the 15th EMDR Association UK & Ireland Annual Conference & AGM, London, UK