Karima Viksten Assel

I am a medical doctor, specialised in child and adolescent psychiatry, a doctoral student in the EPiCSS research group at the Department of Global Public Health, and an expert coordinator in mental health preparedness at the Centre for Health Crises. There, I contribute to the centre's work with my experience of providing psychosocial and crisis support, but also with my experience of developing training programmes, writing knowledge support materials, and collaborating with other social actors.

Previously, I worked as a senior physician at the Transcultural Centre, Stockholm Region Research Centre, where my focus was on strengthening healthcare professionals' capacity to meet the psychiatric needs of refugees. I have also worked on humanitarian missions for Médecins Sans Frontières in the Democratic Republic of Congo and trained psychiatric staff in Tunisia.

In 2017, I was awarded Role Model of the Year from the SFBUP specialist association for raising awareness of the mental health of unaccompanied child migrants and refugees.

My doctoral studies focus on investigating the unequal access of newly arrived children to early psychological support and methods for improving this and increasing equality. Within the TINA/AMELIORATE project, I am evaluating the effect of various social initiatives to increase newly arrived children's use of healthcare services, such as health communication to parents and training for referring staff. We are also investigating whether the psychological assessment of children and young people in primary care can be improved by adding the Cultural Formulation Interview in DSM-5 (a quasi-randomised clinical trial). In the evaluation, we use quantitative methods where register data is central. In addition, we evaluate the project using surveys and qualitative interviews.

The knowledge we gain can be used to strengthen care for newly arrived children, other vulnerable groups, and children and young people in general. The project is funded by the Swedish Research Council.

I have previously been responsible for specialist training for junior doctors in psychiatry. I have also developed training courses on the themes of migration, mental ill health and trauma aimed at primary care, schools, social services and non-profit organisations.