Category FAQs Search : Mental Health
Question: Implementing Trauma Interventions in Schools: Addressing the Immigrant and Refugee Experience
Answer: Purpose
This chapter discusses the promise of and challenges to providingeffective and culturally responsive trauma-focused mental health services to immigrant and refugee youth and their families within school settings.Design/methodology/approach – This chapter utilizes ‘‘practice-based evidence’’ to outline successes and address the barriers associated with the implementation of school-based, trauma-focused, evidence-based interventions in four immigrant or refugee-dense cities: Los Angeles, Chicago, Minneapolis, and Boston.
Findings
Making cultural adaptations to identified trauma interventions that were consistent with community priorities, cultural norms, and values resulted in more accessible programs and greater engagement in
treatment services.
Practical implications
The strategies tested in these real-world settings contribute to the development of culturally competent trauma-informed services for immigrant and refugee youth and their families. Mental health providers and program developers will better understand the need for multilevel engagement strategies and for culturally driven modifications when employing evidence-based programs with immigrant and refugee youth.
Originality/value
This chapter adds to the scarce evidence about useful methods to engage immigrant and refugee youth and families in treatment and to increase the likelihood of positive outcomes.
The nation’s foreign-born1 population has reached nearly 38 million, accounting for about 13% of the total U.S. population (U.S. Census Bureau, 2009). A total of almost 350,000 refugees currently reside in the United States after having been forcibly displaced from their home countries due to war and other dangerous conflicts (UNHCR, 2009). That children and families using health and mental health services are more heterogeneous than ever is supported by the fact that almost 22% of children under 18 have at least one foreign-born parent (U.S. Census Bureau, 2010) and that these diverse families are no longer concentrated in traditional resettlement areas. The recent trends in immigrant and refugee resettlement, coupled with the disparity between mental health needs and culturally relevant services, are forcing program administrators to rethink the design, implementation, and assessment of children’s mental health services offered throughout the United States.
(Source: , 19 Nov 2020)
Source Link: https://doi-org.onlinedatabase.librarynet.com.my/10.1108/S1479-358X(2012)0000009008