Panagiotis Stylianopoulos
Panagiotis Stylianopoulos (Mag. rer. nat.) is a psychodynamic psychotherapist in training and a doctoral candidate within the working group of transcultural psychiatry at the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin. His work focuses on refugees’ access to mental health services, and addiction care in particular, within receiving countries. This includes research on overcoming barriers and improving access. He previously worked as an addiction counsellor and helped establish guidance on addiction counselling for refugees as part of a larger counselling centre in Berlin.
German addiction care – A Delphi study on how to reach and treat refugees
Background: Refugees in Germany have limited access to addiction care despite it being their human right. The presented study identified good practice strategies to overcome barriers preventing refugees from accessing addiction services and care.
Method: A three round, consensus-oriented Delphi process was conducted with 22 experts from different fields (addiction care, refugee aid, academia, policymaking, and migrants’ self-help services).
Results: Thirty-nine good practice strategies across nine categories were identified. Categories included care system, framework conditions, multilingualism, information and education, access, service level, employee level, employee attitudes, and networking.
Conclusion: Ensuring equal access and use of addiction support facilities for refugees is crucial to uphold their right to adequate healthcare. Implementation of the identified good practice strategies in Germany can help achieve this, but institutional and political changes are necessary.