Syrian mental health assessment and migration study (SHAMIS) pilot

Triggered by the Syrian war, 4.6 million Syrians now form what has become the largest refugee population from a single conflict in a generation. This project, working with refugees and city councils in the CLAHRC West area, will develop research methods to assess local health needs. This work will also inform the planning of a larger-scale study to investigate the mental and physical health needs of Syrian refugees across the UK, and in other countries in Europe.

Refugees are at greater risk of feeling dislocated in a new culture and its unfamiliar institutions and systems. The UK has pledged to resettle 20,000 Syrian refugees by 2020 under the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement (VPR) Programme and the community sponsorship scheme. Developing policies that respond to refugees’ specific health needs and service access is therefore vital. These need to be underpinned by good evidence about their mental health and wellbeing, and how they develop coping mechanisms and resilience.

Project aims

This pilot project aims to study the mental health and general wellbeing of Syrian refugees in the CLAHRC West area. We will investigate how these change over time, the effect of the type of resettlement scheme such as the Vulnerable Persons Resettlement scheme, has on individuals and families, and how the schemes are implemented in different areas.

The project aims to:

  • Lay the foundations for a longitudinal quantitative cohort study of Syrian refugees and asylum seekers living in cities in the West of England.
  • Understand the experiences of Syrian refugees and how resettlement schemes affect their migration experiences, using interviews.
  • Compare how different cities implement the government resettlement schemes and sample Syrian refugees from contrasting cities to measure effects on several outcomes.
  • Collaborate with other research teams in Europe to allow comparisons to be made between countries.

We will collect data on:

  • Background and socio-demographics
  • Health and wellbeing
  • Quality of life
  • Migration and resettlement
  • Resilience
  • Social support
  • Maternity
  • Education, employment, and English language proficiency
  • Healthcare use and unmet health needs
  • Acculturation
  • Smoking, waterpipe, and alcohol use
  • Psychological health
  • Post-migration stress
  • Post-traumatic stress symptoms

Ethical approval

This project has been approved by the Faculty of Health Sciences Research Ethics Committee (FREC) at the University of Bristol.

What we hope to achieve

This pilot project will assess how Syrian refugees settle into a high-income country in terms of their employment, education, language and mental health. Ultimately, this project aims to help improve the health and wellbeing of the refugees who will be settled in the UK over the coming years. It will do this by generating evidence on best practice to inform local and national resettlement programmes.

This study will also investigate any unmet health needs and potential barriers to accessing health services. It will support equitable access to services, tailored to refugees’ needs.

Partners on this project

Bristol City Council

The council plays a vital role in the health community as public health is part of its remit. Its role is to prevent disease, promote health, and prolong life among the population of Bristol. Its activities aim to provide conditions in which people can be healthy and it focuses on the population as a whole, not on individual patients or diseases.