The Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture

This is the leading organisation for the documentation and care of victims of torture in the UK. Founded in 1985, the Medical Foundation provides care and rehabilitation to survivors of torture and other forms of organised violence.
Torture has been described as the act of killing a person without their dying. It is an attempt to destroy a person's physical and psychological integrity. In order to treat an individual who has been tortured, you must treat the whole person. In order to give back some quality of life they work on all levels: practical, physical - including medical -and psychological.
Many torture survivors are referred to the Medical Foundation by solicitors or legal representatives for a medico-legal report documenting any torture they have suffered. Doctors, community mental health teams, and refugee community organisations also refer cases.
Limited resources mean that such referrals have to be assessed and prioritised. They assess the degree of torture experienced and its aftermath, and whether treatment could be provided elsewhere. The child and family teams also accept school referrals of young torture victims who have shown disruptive tendencies, or other symptoms of psychological malaise.
Medical Foundation staff, working in co-operation with refugee agencies, assess newly arrived asylum seekers giving a history of torture, to establish whether they require the Medical Foundation’s help. Those accepted for treatment are seen first by the Early Intervention Team to establish how they will best benefit from our services. Treatment goes hand in hand with casework, in which the Medical Foundation tries to deal with any practical problems that a client might have, such as obtaining a college place, or filling in the right benefit form.

Link [Last update: 2006-01-16; 13:22]

Resources Finder for Torture Victims, Asylum-Seekers, & Refugees

The site provides over 100 links to resources including: major centers, online courses (e.g., Caring for Refugees and Survivors of Torture: An Internet Course), legal services, information about asylum and refuge, networks of torture survivors human rights organizations providing information and services, guides to assessment.
Also links to valuable online resources.

Link [Last update: 2006-01-16; 13:30]