Mental health and deprivation of liberty: experience report as a psychiatrist in a refugee detention center

Abstract

The experience report refers to the author’s work, for six months, as a psychiatrist for Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders - MSF) in a refugee detention center in Nauru, an island country in Oceania. The report provides descriptions of the field work and theoretical reflections. The author discusses the issue of suicide and the specificity of such issue for the group of refugees and asylum seekers attended, as well as the discovery of a new clinical diagnosis called resignation syndrome. It’s also sought to reflect on the role of mental health professionals in dealing with deprivation of liberty and discusses ethical challenges experienced in the field, regarding Australia’s refugee policy, its economic importance to Nauru and the impact on the refugee population; obstacles encountered until MSF team was expelled by the local government on October 5th, 2018.