Are asylum seekers and refugees provided with appropriate mental health support in the United Kingdom?

Over 220,000 asylum seekers and refugees (ASR) lived in the UnitedKingdom in 2021. Traumatic experiences lived during the differentphases of the migration process make people seeking asylumvulnerable to mental health conditions, including post-traumaticstress and depression. Assessments conducted by various localauthorities since 2016 stress the need to improve ASR’s access toappropriate mental health support, but lack clarity on how toachieve this. This article explores perceptions of mental healthsupport needs for ASR, and contrasts them to service provision.Data were collected via semi-structured interviews with nine ASR and six individuals who provide wellbeing support to ASR livingin Brighton and Hove, and were analysed via thematic analysisusing NVivo. Three main themes emerged, relating to the needfor holistic mental health support for ASR, the disjunctivebetween perceived needs and the available support, and thebarriers to accessing existing services. Findings highlight the needfor holistic, specialised, culturally sensitive and sustainable mentalhealth support for ASR, and illustrate how training healthcarereceptionists on the rights and entitlements of ASR and greatersupport services coordination can help strengthen ASR’s access tothe available support services and their mental wellbeing.