Solace Course 1: Understanding Refugee and Asylum Seeker Mental Health

Understanding refugee and asylum seeker mental health and wellbeing

Welcome to this course, developed by Solace: Surviving Exile and Persecution - a specialist mental health service for refugees and asylum seekers based in Yorkshire and the Humber.

This course is for anyone in a helping profession who may come into contact with people who have fled their homes to seek safety in the UK - whether in a GP surgery, hospital, community mental health team, social care, or voluntary organisation. No prior knowledge of the asylum system is needed.

Across six modules, you will build your understanding of who refugees and asylum seekers are, what they have experienced, and how you can offer more informed, compassionate support. You will also hear directly from people with lived experience of the asylum system.

How to use this course

You can work through the modules at your own pace, in any order, returning to sections as needed. For a comprehensive experience, we recommend following the sequence from Module 1 to 6.

If you need guidance on a specific topic - such as engagement, cross-cultural working, or stabilisation - you can go straight to the topic index instead. This brings together content from across both courses, organised by theme, with links to relevant sections.

A second course - Effective Therapeutic Support for Asylum Seekers - is available for those in clinical or therapeutic roles.

Please note: to access all links within the topic index, you will need to be enrolled on all three courses. You can enrol from the Solace folder in the NHS England Migrant Health catalogue.