Psychatry

Unaccompanied refugee children and adolescents are a vulnerable group: they live not only in a relatively difficult situation as minor refugees staying in another country, but also face other risks due to the absence of their parents, such as traumatic experiences, exploitation or abuse. The difficult living situation of these unaccompanied refugee children and adolescents might therefore threaten their emotional well-being, resulting in important emotional and behavioural problems. This 'psychological' perspective shows the necessity of a strongly elaborated reception and care system for these children and adolescents in order to meet their specific situation and needs. Nevertheless, the case study of unaccompanied refugee minors living in Belgium, as explored in this paper, shows that the legal perspective on these youthsconsidering them as 'refugees' and 'migrants', not as 'children'is predominantly the starting point to build the care system on. Moreover, this legal perspective contrasts sharply with the psychological perspective, as such that these children and adolescents do not receive appropriate support and care as they need.

Versión final en: Comunidades (de los) vivientes, Mónica Cragnolini (ed.), Buenos Aires, La cebra, 2018, 176 pp., ISBN 978-987-3621-48-2. A primera vista, podría parecer que una investigación sobre la figura del idiota, del estúpido o del imbécil carece de profundidad teórica y de interés práctico. Pero desde el punto de vista teórico, hay que recordar que la figura está presente a lo largo de la historia de la filosofía, desde las apariciones de los imbéciles [elíthioi] relevadas por Lucien Jerphagnon en los diálogos platónicos 1 hasta el personaje conceptual por excelencia, de acuerdo con Gilles Deleuze y Félix Guattari, 2 pasando desde ya por los personajes de los célebres diálogos de Nicolás de Cusa y Descartes. La idiotez también constituye un cuadro clínico durante el siglo XIX y gran parte del siglo XX, como puede verse todavía en el Pratique sémiologique des maladies mentales de Paul Sollier y Paul Courbon, publicado en 1924, y algunos de sus elementos siguen presentes en las clasificaciones más recientes de los trastornos del neurodesarrollo, como el DSM-V y la CIE-10.

Objective: The aims of this study were to determine the prevalence of psychiatric symptoms and complaints among remand prisoners in Switzerland and to analyze the relationships between psychiatric symptoms, physical health and substance abuse problems in this population. Method: The medical files of all detainees attending the prison health service in 2007 were reviewed. Identified health problems were coded using the International Classification of Primary Care (ICPC-2). Descriptive statistics and measures of association were computed. Results: A total of 1510 files were analyzed. Several associations between psychological symptoms (anxiety and insomnia) and physical health problems (skin, respiratory and circulatory) were observed. Substance abuse was also frequently associated with somatic health problems. Conclusions: These data provide the first comprehensive description of the mental health of detainees in Switzerland's largest remand prison. Our findings emphasize the need for coordinated health care services in detention settings.

Unaccompanied refugee children and adolescents are a vulnerable group: they live not only in a relatively difficult situation as minor refugees staying in another country, but also face other risks due to the absence of their parents, such as traumatic experiences, exploitation or abuse. The difficult living situation of these unaccompanied refugee children and adolescents might therefore threaten their emotional well-being, resulting in important emotional and behavioural problems. This 'psychological' perspective shows the necessity of a strongly elaborated reception and care system for these children and adolescents in order to meet their specific situation and needs. Nevertheless, the case study of unaccompanied refugee minors living in Belgium, as explored in this paper, shows that the legal perspective on these youthsconsidering them as 'refugees' and 'migrants', not as 'children'is predominantly the starting point to build the care system on. Moreover, this legal perspective contrasts sharply with the psychological perspective, as such that these children and adolescents do not receive appropriate support and care as they need.