Refugee camps: ‘Factories for producing mental illness’

from greenleft, 1 February 2010: “On January 25 youth mental health expert Patrick McGorry said refugee detention centres were “factories for producing mental illness”. McGorry is the head of the Orygen Research Centre and Headspace, a youth mental illness network. He worked with refugees for more than 20 years and said many refugees had experienced trauma and torture before fleeing to seek refuge in a safe country. He said many already had mental health problems. “And what we have been doing here until very recently, and even now is actually adding to those mental health problems”, he said. “It’s an absolute disaster that we must not repeat.” more