A new website with a mental health component has been launched recently that will be very helpful to everyone working with refugees and asylum seekers suffering from mental illness.

Did you know, for example, that the people you should never contact to get information on someone is the embassy relating to their country of origin - since people are usually fleeing persecution from that country, their whereabouts is just what that embassy will want to know!

Seems obvious but you'd be surprised how many acute admission wards do just that...

1. The main website is www.harpweb.org.uk.  It contains many resources including:

• Communicate: a free downloadable multi-lingual appointment card in 30 languages
• Practical tools: including a model asylum seeker 'welcome pack'/translated instructions for taking medicines/links to sites with multi-cultural leaflets
• Vital resources: links to national refugee organisations and a national directory of local resources for refugees and asylum seekers (currently under construction)
• Social information: information on unaccompanied minors, trafficking and refugee health professionals
• Cultural information: information on cross-cultural issues, country profiles and a guide to languages

2. The mental health website is http://mentalhealth.harpweb.org.uk.  It focuses on mental health and well-being issues that affect refugees and asylum seekers, including:

• Rights and awareness: information on legal rights and health services for refugees and asylum seekers with mental health needs
• Experiencing mental health problems: a guide to mh problems, treatments and self-help strategies
• Pathways to support: practical tools and guidelines on a range of topics including the use of interpreters
• Cultural understandings: information on the role of culture in the context of mental health and well-being, covering issues such as PTSD, spirituality and religion and traditional healers
• Webcasts of mental health workshops: 10 minute webcasts covering topics such as working with torture victims/working with children/psychological impact of living in institutions/use of interpreters/supporting staff in challenging settings

There are also some short films highlighting good practice.