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Social workers and mental health professionals should refuse to provide expert evidence in asylum cases if they feel it is inappropriate, a solicitor urged last week, writes Sally Gillen.

Tim Barnden, of south-London based firm Glazer Delmar, warned that some solicitors were seeking medical and other reports to strengthen their cases when it was sometimes unnecessary.

Speaking at a conference on mental health and unaccompanied minors in London, Barnden said some solicitors were under a “misapprehension” that some of their clients experienced mental health problems.

He said: “You may find solicitors coming to you seeking to medicalise their client. You should not be shy about turning round and saying that it is not relevant. Truth is always the best building block for a case.”

Barnden added that some solicitors mistakenly believed that asylum seekers who had been tortured would automatically develop a mental health problem such as post traumatic stress disorder but research had shown the majority of people would not.


“No psychiatrist or psychologist should be diagnosing an illness that is not there. It is clearly unethical and it does not help the client.”

He warned that “rushing to medicalise” people could have devastating implications for them and there was a danger they could develop mental health problems as a result, and overuse of diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder could mean those genuinely suffering would not be taken seriously by the courts.