Incorporating Preliminary Mental Health Assessment in the Initial Healthcare for Refugees in New Jersey.

The study aims to assess the feasibility of introducing a mental health screening tool into the initial health care assessment for refugees in New Jersey, US. A semi-structured interview was conducted with a convenience sample of professionals providing refugee health care in New Jersey and in a number of other states. There is a widespread appreciation of the need to consider the mental and emotional issues of the refugees as a priority in healthcare services.

Child mental health and service needs in Iraq: beliefs and attitudes of primary school teachers.

Objective: To survey Iraqi primary school teachers' beliefs and attitudes about mental health and behavioural problems of children.

Methods: From 10 primary schools in Baghdad, 148 teachers were surveyed using a closed-response questionnaire to assess beliefs and attitudes regarding students' mental health and behavioural problems, needs, resources and limitations to teaching.

Results: Disruptive behaviours were rated as main problems by the largest proportions of teachers.

Psychosocial research with children in Iraq: current health practice and policy in a context of armed conflict.

There is a need to show how psychosocial issues affect children in conflict areas like Iraq. Raising knowledge and awareness of children's mental health status in Iraq has been difficult and the knowledge base has been limited by the shortage of resources, international sanctions and the isolation of Iraqi scholars. Many obstacles to research in Iraq exist but an agenda should be developed emphasising the need for high-quality contextualised psychosocial research.

Iraq: children's and adolescents' mental health under conditions of continuous turmoil.

Children and adolescents constitute half of Iraq's population of over 30 million. Mental health problems experienced by Iraqi children and adolescents are a hidden problem. Many factors contribute to the mental health problems of young Iraqis, including being victims and witnesses to violence, seeing family members become victims, being displaced from their homes, and experiencing the instability that still plagues their nation.

Iraqi children's rights: building a system under fire.

War violates every human right of children. In recent years, the lives of Iraqi children and the livelihoods of their families have become precarious. Conflict has split the communities where they live and taken the lives of hundreds of their friends and family members.