Muriel Gilbert, Patrick Bovier
Geneva University Hospitals, Department of Community Medicine
Switzerland

Prevention and detection of post-traumatic stress disorder in asylum seekers from Kosovo: a pilot intervention in Geneva, Switzerland

Prevención y detección de desordenes postraumáticos en solicitantes de asilo de Kosovo: una intervención piloto en Ginebra, Suiza

Between 1998 and 1999, about one million people from Kosovo were displaced because of violence and war. Over 45 000 came to Switzerland, a country with a large and already acculturated community of working compatriots. The Departments of Community Medicine and Psychiatry of the Geneva University Hospitals anticipated the impossibility of dealing, in individual terms, with this sudden increase in the number of asylum seekers. Based on data from the literature, interviews with members of the Kosovar community and with experienced health professionals, we set up a pilot intervention taking into account the collective dimension of mental health care needs in this specific population, consisting of three axis.

The first axis consisted of information sessions for the social workers in charge of receiving and managing asylum seekers in the different centers. These sessions were aimed at improving the detection of post-traumatic symptoms.

The second axis of intervention consisted of community information meetings with groups of asylum seekers in their centers. During these meetings, we focused on the recognition and management of possible post-traumatic stress reactions by asylum seekers themselves.

Finally, for families that wished to participate, emotional debriefing sessions were organized. We determined the impact of the intervention with social workers using specific surveys and discussion groups, and in refugees with the Harvard trauma questionnaire, administered before and after the emotional debriefing sessions.

Thanks to the support of the Geneva Foundation to Protect Health in War, this intervention reached forty families, in six centers, in the Geneva area. Globally, the intervention was positively perceived, by social workers as well as by refugees. Post-traumatic stress symptoms were less frequent after emotional debriefing, but this difference was not significant. In the future, lessons learned from this experience will facilitate the implementation of efficient preventative mental health care strategies.