Children and adolescents

Each year several hundred children are treated at the Medical Foundation's London centre. They may have been tortured or forced to witness torture of others, including their parents. Their emotional turmoil is often compounded by the suspicion with which they are treated by sceptical British immigration officials.

Common problems they experience are pain, a profound sense of isolation, suicidal feelings, and nightmares, with counselling, group work, art, music and story-telling sessions among the therapies used by the Children & Family Team to help young clients find some understanding of their experiences. Psychotherapists in the team will guide a young person through the difficult process of learning to live in exile and coping with parents who are often changed dramatically by their own experiences of loss and mourning.

The team's work is based on the idea that children and adolescents are likely to develop emotional strengths when important elements are firmly established in their lives. These include feeling they belong to someone they trust because that person understands them; being able to reflect on a difficult and painful past, and talk about their experiences with someone who is at their level of understanding; being able to make active choices in their lives instead of feeling passive and helpless; and feeling part of a community.

With many of these young people arriving unaccompanied in the UK, a prerequisite for the healing process is a stable, safe environment, but all too often their accounts of persecution are ignored, and their asylum claims rejected.

One crucial aspect of the MF's work is to provide expert legal advice and assistance to challenge negative asylum decisions and win a measure of security for these children.

Children's lawyer Syd Bolton, advises clinicians on how to get young clients' asylum cases dealt with fairly and effectively by trying to ensure that every child torture survivor is represented by a child specialist immigration lawyer, with whom, if necessary, he works closely on mounting an effective appeal.

In some cases, he has helped to secure the release from unlawful detention of children who have had their age disputed. In others, he has obtained late night injunctions to prevent the imminent removal of a client where there have been serious flaws in the decision making process.

The welfare provisions for child clients are also closely monitored and the MF will intervene with social services if support arrangements are found wanting.