Psychosocial support among refugees of conflict in developing countries: a critical literature review

The aim of this paper is to examine the psychosocial needs and stressors among refugees of conflicts in developing countries, and their group-based social support mechanisms. A systematic literature search of peer reviewed journal articles (n = 60 articles) was carried out using the following factors: type (refugee); cause (conflicts); location (developing countries). As refugees move towards a prolonged urban displacement phase, needs and stressors become different than those of the acute phase. Daily stressors affect far more people than are affected by PTSD, but many psychosocial support interventions focus simply on the latter. Positive effects of social support on the mental health of displaced people are established; the process is not clear, yet group processes and identities seem to be important. We therefore suggest that the social identity approach can be applied to understand the emergence of a common refugee identity and its role in empowerment through activating social support networks.