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The government’s programme to disperse asylum seekers is failing to meet their mental health needs and is inadequately funded, a new Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust report has revealed, writes Anabel Unity Sale.

Dispersed: A study of services for asylum seekers in West Yorkshire looked at five councils in the Yorkshire and Humberside consortium dealing with asylum seekers. It says: "The level of resourcing for many services is inadequate and there is a lack of capacity in many arrears." It added that the mental health needs of asylum seekers were often unmet.

The report calls for the dispersal system to be much better resourced by the National Asylum Support Service and by all relevant departments. It recommended the Department of Health offer more targeted mental health services for asylum seekers.

It says: "The Department of Health should provide funding and training to promote the provision of appropriate and accessible mental health services, through mainstream services and other targeted initiatives."

Melba Wilson, policy director of mental health charity Mind, backed the reports call for additional funding of mental health services for asylum seekers.

She told Community Care: "Asylum seekers and refugees are very much overlooked and the result is their mental health needs are unmet. Mental health services need to be made more accessible and more appropriate for them. Agencies need to work at getting better understanding of cultural differences and the experience these people have been through."

She added: "Asylum seekers need to be dealt with in a very real and fundamental way in the statutory sector."

A Department of Health spokesperson said: "We provide financial support to voluntary sector groups who provide mental health services for refugees."

She added: "Health authorities and local authorities make their own arrangements to provide services. Health authority allocations are intended to cover the costs of local populations, and these include asylum seekers coming into an area."

Refugee Council head of policy Alison Fenney said: "We welcome this timely report, which clearly shows that the dispersal system needs to be adequately resourced by the government in order to work effectively."

She added that similar research to that conducted in West Yorkshire needed to be repeated on a national level.

Dispersed: A study of services for asylum seekers in West Yorkshire from 01904 627 810.