[Mental health care for migrants].
BACKGROUND
Global migration and the increasing number of migrants to Europe and Germany diversify the needs in the psychosocial and health care system. Migrants are a heterogeneous group as regards their country of emigration, reasons for migration and legal status.


OBJECTIVE
We aim to give an overview on 1) mental health of migrants in Germany, 2) cultural associated explanatory of addictive behaviour, 3) utilisation and help-seeking behaviour migrants with particular regard to addicted migrants, and on 4) barriers within the psychosocial care system.


RESULTS
Studies on migration, mental health and utilisation of psychosocial institutions especially of institutions for addicted persons show inconsistent results. The results may be conflicting because of the methods used (e. g. small sample size, variety of methods, studies on clinical populations, studies without control-groups, mono-ethnic studies) or because of differences between populations. Therefore, the comparability of results is limited. Migrants use health and psychosocial care institutions differently from non-migrants. Barriers within the psychosocial care system may be caused by uncertainty of learned behaviour of members of staff how to treat migrants or by institutional barriers.


CONCLUSIONS
Our findings show that empirical studies on mental health of migrants are still rare. Further specific investigations are needed to get an in-depth understanding of migrants' mental health and their pattern of psychosocial and health care utilisation to modify responsiveness of services.
Lindert
Jutta
J
Social and Community Psychiatry, Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary, University of London, London, UK.
Priebe
Stefan
S
Penka
Simone
S
Napo
Fatima
F
Schouler-Ocak
Meryam
M
Heinz
Andreas
A
D003466:Cultural Characteristics; D003469:Culture; D054242:Emigrants and Immigrants / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005858:Germany; D006297:Health Services Accessibility / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D008605:Mental Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care; D011369:Professional-Patient Relations; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000534:rehabilitation* / Q000628:therapy