Validity of Psychiatric Evaluation of Asylum Seekers through Telephone

Samuel Yang,Yasin Ibrahim,Regina Baronia,Michael Kluge

doi:10.1155/2021/8856352

Samuel Yang, Yasin Ibrahim + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1155/2021/8856352

Copy DOI

Abstract

The goal of the psychiatric assessment of asylum seekers is to evaluate the asylum seeker's mental health and credibility. The shortage of mental health providers trained in this particular type of evaluation makes in-person evaluation not always feasible. Telephonic interview has been occasionally utilized to fill this void. The validity of such evaluations in assessing credibility has yet to be fully established. In the case of telephonic interviews, evaluators are limited with no access to facial or body language cues that can indicate deception or honesty. We will present a case of a client evaluated via telephone that was deemed credible and eventually released to pursue asylum in the US. Assessment of credibility relied solely on cues obtained from the client's narrative, reported symptoms, and their style of interaction with the evaluator. We will highlight the findings from the client's interview that supported credibility in the case and discuss the challenges of assessing asylum seeker's credibility via telephonic interview. Telephonic evaluation of credibility can be considered a valid method despite major challenges, but psychiatric evaluators should be aware of the limitations of telephonic evaluations given the high possibility of secondary gains and deception.

Highlights

Recent events have rendered immigration and asylumseeking topics of increasing significance
Mental health is a vital concern with refugees as studies have shown them to have higher rates of depression and posttraumatic distress syndrome (PTSD) than the general population [2]
Current literature is generally supportive of the use of telephonic communication more research is needed

Summary

Introduction

Recent events have rendered immigration and asylumseeking topics of increasing significance. Verbal cues obtained via content-based criteria analysis and reality monitoring increased the accuracy of detecting both lies and truths to 70% [15, 17]. Such cues include the provision of a less coherent story, less spontaneous corrections of their story, fewer reproductions of conversations, fewer admissions of forgetting certain details, slower speaking, hesitation (including more “ums” and “ers”), provision of fewer details (including perceptual details), more negative emotion words, and fewer exclusive words [16, 18,19,20]. Linguistic studies of verbal content were utilized and show that liars tend to use fewer first-person singular pronouns, fewer third-person pronouns, more negative emotion words, and fewer exclusive words These linguistic characteristics showed a mean accuracy of 67% [19]. We will discuss how we reached our conclusions and provide recommendations as to how psychiatrists can enhance their ability to detect malingering/deception in such cases

Case Report

Findings

Discussion