Psykisk ohälsa och omvårdnadsbehov hos flyktingbarn och unga vuxna i ett främmande land

Sammanfattning: Background: Mental illness among the current refugees is a global problem. With more than 34 million refugee children or adolescents leaving everything behind to survive or find a better life. Several of these young refugees are forced to endure traumatic experiences of the war, the loss of loved ones, from escaping and the uncertainty of the asylum process. To increase the understanding of nursing needs for these young people, it is important that health care professionals can be aware and provided help with better cultural awareness.  Purpose: To describe the mental illness and nursing needs of refugee children and adolescents.Method: A literature overview with descriptive design has been conducted, 10 articles based on qualitative analysis were included. The articles were reviewed and analyzed with keywords that are presented into themes. Result: Findings show that these young refugees are suffering from different forms of mental illness. The result has been gathered into 6 categories: “stigmatization”, “fear, worrying and uncertainty”, “positive factors on mental health”, “emotional factors and trauma” and “psychosomatic symptoms”. Conclusion: Mental illness is common among refugee children and make them vulnerable in society. Various mental disorders such as PTSD, depression and anxiety is frequently described by refugee children and adolescents. Negative views and perception on mental illness from society and themselves forces these young refugees to be in denial about their mental health and not accept the help they need. If the health professionals had better transcultural awareness and a broader understanding of the unmet needs of these young refugees, a greater probability of being able to give the right help follows.  Keywords: refugee children and adolescents, mental illness, nursing needs.