Medical Care of Unaccompanied Asylum-Seeking Adolescents At The Geneva University Hospitals, Switzerland : A Qualitative Study To Explore The Challenges of Their Transition To Majority

Author(s) : Thomas Patrick. Pernin, Melissa Dominicé Dao, Catherine Chamay Weber, Françoise Narring

Source : https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2018.10.174

Abstract:

“The number of unaccompanied asylum-seeking adolescents (UASA) has increased in Switzerland in 2015, prompting medical teams to improve management of these young people and their transition towards adult medical care. About 5% of all UASA received in Switzerland are resettled in the region of Geneva. In 2015-2016, it locally represented a population group of 226 adolescents with numerous and complex health care needs (infectious and tropical diseases, nutritional deficiencies, long-standing illnesses and psychological distress). They all benefited from a medical check-up and follow-up by an adolescent medicine physician at the Geneva University Hospitals’ Adolescents and Young Adults (AYA) Program. The aim of our project was to assess how this program prepared for the transition to the Adult Migrant Health (AMH) Program of the same hospitals.”