No abstract

Public health interventions for Somalis should focus on CMD as well as PTSD, khat use and mental health screening for suicide risk and mental disorders on arrival.

The need for accurate information about the mental health problems of multicultural communities requires valid measures of mental health for use in a number of languages and cultural contexts. Measures of psychopathological symptoms leading to a diagnosis have been especially criticised for their universal application, without attention to their limitations across cultures. Yet, measures are crucial to assess recovery and the performance of services, and to take account of carer and user views. We summarise the main challenges in the cultural adaptation of such measures in our work with adults and adolescents of South Asian, African and Caribbean origin.

Somali refugees living in London have a relatively high level of need but a low level of service use. Refugee characteristics could only account for a limited amount of cost variation.