Psychosocial care

From the area of Psychosocial Care of Valencia Acoge we accompany people during all phases of the migration process as a measure of prevention and protection of mental health. To this end, we attend to the relationship between the human being and their environment, taking into account their own worldview, cultural context and the factors that affect the current situation.

During the migration process, there are many social, structural and relational conditioning factors that can affect the emotional state:

• Cases of forced migration: wars, natural disasters, economic reasons, persecution for religious or political reasons, belonging to a certain social group, gender or sexual orientation, etc.
• Difficulties encountered during the journey: situations of exploitation and mistreatment.
• Difficulties in the reception phase: emotional and/or economic vulnerability, migratory mourning, structural violence (law on foreigners, forced waiting, CIES detention centres), relational violence (ethnocentric oppression, acculturation, naturalisation of racism and xenophobia), etc.

From the psychological care programme we also provide specific support to asylum seekers and refugees who experience psychological distress associated with the violation of their rights and especially to those who, for reasons of gender or sexual orientation, have had to migrate forcibly.

Some examples of gender-based violence that can occur in the field of migration are: forced or early marriage, fear of female genital mutilation, exploitation for sexual purposes, sexual violence in the context of armed conflict, LGTTBI people, sexual slavery, dowry-related honour crimes, control of sexuality, reproductive capacity and the body (sterilisation, prostitution and forced pregnancy...), domestic and family violence.