Asylum Seekers and Refugees - Livewell Southwest

Livewell Southwest offers a specialist service dedicated to supporting the health and mental health needs of asylum seekers and those who have sought refuge in the UK.

We work with asylum seekers and refugees in order to promote social inclusion and fair access to health services. Our team also anticipates and prevents health crises and health deterioration within the community and provides advice and guidance relating to their needs in line with current legislation. This ensures people are granted fair access to social inclusion and the services they need to become and stay well. We do this by working with people to anticipate and prevent health crises among the refugee community and helping them to adopt an outlook that promotes healthy living in order to prevent their health from deteriorating.

We also offer regular and consistent advice on the needs of asylum seekers and refugees in line with current legislation to ensure clinicians who work with people who have sought asylum receive the healthcare services they need. Training sessions are also offered by the team at Livewell Southwest to help staff and other agencies better meet the needs of this community.

Support starts from day one. An initial assessment takes place, and thereafter, the team works to deliver interventions that will help to improve and defend the mental well-being of the people we are supporting, many of whom will have suffered stressful or traumatic periods in advance of arriving in the Southwest. We also signpost to, and provide advice on, how to access treatment from other mental health services, such as psychiatrists and psychotherapists.

As you might expect, we work with a wide variety of different nationalities and people from a multitude of cultural backgrounds. The individual needs of these people are always taken into account, and we work with professional interpreters—on the phone or face-to-face, if that's what people prefer—to make sure the people we support are offered care and advice in a way they can fully understand.

In addition to supporting the mental health and wellbeing of refugees, we also provide a health screening clinic where people can discuss their general health needs, such as: how to register with a GP in Plymouth; arranging a blood pressure check-up; booking chest X-rays; or measuring people's height and weight.

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