Syrian Refugees: Mental Health Patients

mental health patients: All three Syrian refugees are among the growing number of mental health patients now being treated at Domiz, a Syrian refugee camp in the Duhok province of Iraq. Syrias two-year civil war has killed an estimated 110,000 people and created more than two million refugees more than 48,000 of whom now live in Domiz, a camp meant to accommodate just 1,000 families when it first opened in April 2012, according to The Star. MORE ON THESTAR.COM In northern Iraq, they have escaped Syrias bombs and bullets but their crisis is far from over: A delirious woman who thought she was pregnant with eleven babies. A 10-year-old boy embarrassed about his sudden bed-wetting. A businessman who started cutting himself because he gets relief from seeing the blood. And as the population of Domiz has swelled, so too have the camps mental health needs. In 2012, roughly seven per cent of mental health patients had symptoms of severe mental disorders, according to M decins Sans Fronti res , which is providing health services at the camp. This year, that number has already more than doubled to 15 per cent. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.