A Darwin paediatrician says children held in the city’s immigration detention centre have the worst mental health problems he has ever seen.
More than 50 of the 70 children who are at risk of being forcibly sent to Nauru are being held in Darwin’s Wickham Point Detention Centre.
Doctor Josh Francis said many of the children were terrified at the prospect of being sent to the island and the removal would exacerbate existing mental and physical health problems.
“One of the devastating things about living in detention in the current climate is they [the children] don’t have any hope,” Dr Francis said.
“And we’re seeing children suffer significant mental health problems because of that lack of hope.
“Their parents feel helpless and hopeless and something like this High Court ruling is something they were sweating on, waiting for, hoping it would be an opportunity for them.
“So having that dashed … their last hope for a good outcome has been taken away from them.”
Dr Francis said he had seen many children with depression and anxiety.
He also saw one seven-year-old girl who had attempted suicide, and drawn pictures of her own funeral.
“A seven-year-old girl with the clarity of mind to even think this situation is so hopeless that I want to end my life … is so shocking and absolutely devastating,” Dr Francis said.
“Not only does she think like this on this occasion, but it’s a pervasive theme for her thinking of death and dying that comes out … in her thinking, talking and the pictures she draws.”
Mental health of child detainees the ‘worst of any patient group’
Dr Francis said it was just one example of the severity of mental health problems among children in detention, which is far worse than any other patient group he has dealt with.
“It’s beyond anything I’ve experienced as a paediatrician. The mental health problems we see here are more severe than the ones that we’d see in other refugee populations that have been settled in Australia,” he said.
Dr Francis said many of the older children in detention would be returning to Nauru, a place they fear.
“Some of these kids are some of the most worldly and wise children, they’ve experienced so much in their lives already. And for many of them, they’ve experienced what it’s like in Nauru and they’re terrified,” he said.
“They’ve seen people try to starve themselves, seen people try to hang themselves, seen the stress and depression that occurs among the adults they live amongst in Nauru.
“They know it’s worse in Nauru than it is here in Australia.”