psychological help

• France

The fact that the Afghan suspect behind the deadly knife attack in Lyon suffered from mental health problems has highlighted France’s overall challenge of providing migrants with psychological traumas the appropriate care. While some migrants remain unaware of the benefits of seeking help from a psychologist, others suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), or are simply impossible to follow-up on because they are continuously on the move.

• Germany

Traumatized refugees in need of psychological care have to wait over seven months in Germany before they are granted therapy. The long wait periods were reported in response to an official inquiry submitted by the Left Party (Die Linke).

• Greece

Claire Paccalin on the Greek island of Lesbos meets a family struggling to keep their lives together while living in the Moria refugee camp.

• Italy

A project in Naples financed by the Italian government's Department for Equal Opportunities is using ethnopsychology to assist migrant women who have suffered violence and trauma.

• Italy

The Italian federation of medical guilds has presented a free online training course for Italian doctors to help them treat patients who have suffered physical or psychological trauma from their migratory journeys.

• Germany

Young refugee men have difficulties starting their new lives in Germany, with the media often portraying them as violent aggressors. A study finds that they not only have psychological trauma from surviving war and persecution but also face fresh mental health issues linked to a failure to integrate into society.

• Germany

Most refugees in Germany aren't used to talking about their trials and tribulations. But even if they wanted to, psychological help is often hard to come by. One initiative at the anchor center for asylum seekers in Schweinfurt, Bavaria tries to change that with psychosocial peer counselors. We visited the center to find out more about the project for refugees by refugees.

• Germany

Can you create art out of the traumas many refugees had to undergo to reach Europe? An exhibition in a small village in northwest Germany sponsored by the Malteser charity is doing just that in hopes of helping refugees to process their experiences.

• Afghanistan
• Germany
• Iraq

A new study found that about 50 percent of refugees in Germany suffer psychological problems. The report also found that almost 75 percent of refugees interviewed had personally witnessed traumatic experiences.

• Afghanistan
• Germany

Do you wish you had someone to talk to in your own language about depression or psychological problems? IPSO, an organization based in Germany, offers counseling for refugees by refugees. The support is offered online as well as face-to-face, so you can get support wherever you are.

• Germany

Asylum seekers who have been sent to holding centers at German international airports go through a lot of stress, knowing that their claim for asylum will most likely be rejected. Social worker Jessica Gürtler from a Protestant care center at the airport offers counseling to these asylum seekers.

• Kosovo

A woman from Kosovo recovers in a German hospital after attempting suicide. Meanwhile, her entire family is deported from Germany. How could this happen? Oliver Pieper went to find out.