Mission Statement
The mission of the Society of Asylum Medicine (SAM) is to create a community of physicians, mental health providers, and other caregivers, as well as legal and human rights professionals who work with individuals seeking asylum. Our goal is to promote collaboration, an exchange of ideas, scholarship, and advocacy among clinicians and their partners involved in asylum medicine.
SAM provides a robust bibliography and library of asylum medicine and human rights literature, including essential legal and historical documents. SAM supports scholarly growth in the field of asylum medicine with opportunities for collaboration among professionals. SAM maintains an ongoing list of conferences, trainings, and activities related to the field. Asylum medicine leaders and master clinicians will highlight the most pressing issues in regularly published podcasts and blogs.
Members of the Society of Asylum Medicine have access to a listserv that encourages the exchange of ideas about challenging forensic issues. An active Twitter feed provides the latest news in the field and amplifies timely topics in asylum medicine. SAM fosters clinician advocacy to support the vulnerable populations we serve.
Who We Are
We are physicians and other clinicians who provide trauma-informed medical and mental health forensic evaluations of asylum seekers. We work with legal and human rights professionals, advocates, and a variety of community-facing organizations to establish and follow best practices in preparing medical-legal documentation of torture and ill-treatment in individuals who claim persecution and human rights abuses. The Society of Asylum Medicine welcomes professionals* who are dedicated to supporting culturally-sensitive, objective evaluations of those alleging persecution and seeking safety in another country.
* Interested professionals might be healthcare providers, students and trainees, policymakers, public health specialists, researchers, social workers, and ancillary medical personnel
