The mental health and psychosocial impact for Syrian refugees fleeing protracted conflict: an in-depth analysis of the stages of transition and health

This PhD research will focus on refugees fleeing the Syrian conflict during three different stages of transition: refugees in informal and formal camps, urban refugees, new arrival refugees in transit; and in two countries: Greece and Lebanon. A transitory migrant population is defined as those who are either actively in transit, temporarily living in urbanised areas or informal camps, or residing in a semi-permanent refugee camp with the intention of ultimately settling in another host country. To date there is not substantive research or literature on this population, compared with literature on those in refugee camps or static populations fleeing conflict settings. Mixed methods approaches, including semi-structured interviews and field based assessment, would be used to collect refugee mental health (MH) narratives to assess the MH impacts of being in transition on a population already exposed to repeated traumas from protracted conflict. As well as collecting health narratives and situating these within the context of individual agency and resilience, the research would also place these narratives within a broader framework and assess refugee MH needs in displacement from conflict, the efficacy of humanitarian MH programmes, the impact of health systems and policy, and disaster risk reduction. Effective implementation of evidence-based research can have significant effect on improving mental health outcomes. This research will address the mental health of Syrian refugees, fleeing one of the largest humanitarian crises in our generation and will study interdisciplinary collaborations to more effectively address this most pressing of concerns in global public health.