Feasibility Study of Determining Prevalence of Common Mental Health Disorders in Male Immigration Detainees

Howells, Samuel; Sen, Piyal

doi:10.4135/9781529735604

Cited by 1 publication

(2 citation statements)

References 27 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The biggest concern is that the response rate was low and we do not know how agreeing to participate or not differed between ex‐prisoners and others, or whether those with mental health difficulties were more or less likely to participate. Strategies considering how to increase response rate for such populations, learning from this study, have been reported elsewhere (Howells & Sen, 2020). The resulting relatively small sample size meant that some of the statistical analyses were likely under‐powered to detect associations between ex‐prisoner status and screened prevalence rate of mental disorders.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Mental health in immigration detention: A comparison of foreign national ex‐prisoners and other detainees

Sen

Crowley

Moro

et al. 2021

Criminal Behav Ment Health

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

BackgroundPeople held in immigration removal centres have a range of vulnerabilities relating both to disappointment at imminent removal from the country of hoped‐for residence and various antecedent difficulties. An important subgroup in the UK is of foreign national ex‐prisoners who have served a period of incarceration there. Prisoners generally have higher rates of mental disorders than the general population. It is, however, not clear whether foreign national ex‐prisoners in UK immigration removal centres have higher rates of mental disorders than other detainees.AimsTo compare the screened prevalence of mental disorders, levels of unmet needs and time in detention between foreign national ex‐prisoners and others in Immigration Removal Centres in England.MethodsWe conducted a secondary analysis of cross‐sectional survey data from a previously published study in one Immigration Removal Centre.ResultsThe 28 foreign national ex‐prisoners had been in immigration detention for longer and reported greater levels of unmet needs than the other 66 detainees. The highest levels of unmet needs among the foreign national ex‐prisoners were in the areas of psychological distress and intimate relationships. After adjusting for time spent in detention, there was evidence to suggest that foreign national ex‐prisoners had a higher screened prevalence of substance use disorders, autism spectrum disorders and attention‐deficit hyperactivity disorder than the other detainees.Conclusions/Implications for Clinical PracticeThis study supports the view that foreign national ex‐prisoners are a vulnerable group within immigration detention who have needs for enhanced and specialist service provision, including appropriate arrangements for health screening and active consideration to alternatives to their detention.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Eligibility criteria for participation were: being born outside the European Union, being over the age of 18 and having a working knowledge of the English language. Figure 1 shows more details and the sampling is further described elsewhere (Howells & Sen, 2020; Sen et al., 2018).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%