Using TIC approaches to support young people affected by conflict

Research suggests that displaced children and young people fleeing war and conflict may have experienced an average of eight potentially traumatic events.

These may include seeing family members injured or killed, their homes destroyed, fleeing persecution and having frightening journeys to the UK. Some of these children and young people will also be separated from family members and so arrive in the UK alone. Rates of mental health difficulties are estimated to be five times higher in those seeking asylum than for the general UK population, according to research by the Refugee Council.

It is not inevitable that all children and young people who experience such events will develop enduring mental health difficulties. In spite of some of the most unimaginably difficult experiences, some children will recover from the psychological impact naturally over time. Others, however, will not, and the long-term effects can lead to a broad range of difficulties including unexplained physical symptoms, trouble sleeping, heightened anxiety and everyday life triggering distressing memories.