Freedom from Torture Opens New Office in North East

The Medical Foundation opened a new centre in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne in 2005 to offer training to health professionals and others working with asylum seekers and refugees in the North East in how best to improve the mental wellbeing of survivors of torture.

It also provides counselling to particularly vulnerable individuals with complex needs for whom a service is not available elsewhere.

In addition, a model of good practice is being developed with primary care mental health workers in the Newcastle Primary Care NHS Trust in working with torture survivors. At the end of the Department of Health funded project, the model will be shared with primary care mental health workers across the UK.

The charity, which is based in London, with branches in Manchester, Glasgow and now the North East, last year received nearly 2,500 referrals for help. Clients came from more than 90 countries, the foremost being Iran, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Turkey, Somalia, Afghanistan, Cameroon, Sri Lanka, Sudan and Iraq.

The need for a service in the North East was established following a detailed national assessment by the charity. The region was seen as having both pressing needs, and the existing infrastructure to support an office.

Managing the new service is Alan Brice, former director of student welfare and head of student counselling at Newcastle University, with the office temporarily based in the North England Refugee Service's building in Jesmond Road West.

"There is a growing number of refugees and asylum seekers in the region, a significant proportion of whom will have suffered gross human rights violations in their country of origin," said Mr Brice when the centre opened.

"During my time at the university I worked with students who had suffered torture and now I have the opportunity of concentrating on helping such people, directly via case work and counselling, and also by supporting other agencies working with them.

"The North East is a friendly and welcoming region, but unfortunately, as is the case in many other parts of Britain, there is also xenophobia and racism. Part of the remit of the Medical Foundation North East is to raise awareness of the real reasons that people are forced to flee their country of origin."