Insecurity, Distress And Mental Health

The trauma that refugees experience is a major determinant in their health. Many refugees have experienced great amounts of trauma, which puts them at risk for more health problems. For instance, Wagner et al., (2013) showed that refugees who reported greater trauma symptoms were more likely to report heart disease, hypertension, and lower levels of self-reported health. In addition to exacerbating the physical health problems, trauma was also associated with the following barriers to healthcare: lack of understanding, cost and access problems, and the need for an interpreter. In addition, Wagner et al. (2013) showed that refugee populations who came to the United States 20-30 years ago still exhibited many trauma symptoms. This means that

In this paper I will discuss about the Syrian refugees Crisis, the characteristics of the of Syrian refuges crisis, how similar or different it the Syrian refugee crisis is from other refugee crisis, how Syrian refugee crisis affects individuals, families, and communities, what relevant research exists on the Syrian refugee crisis, and what key strategies have been known to be useful in this crisis, how one promote resilience in this crisis and how the social workers personal value affect him/her in addressing this crisis.

Marcovitch, S. G., Gold, A., Washington, J., Wasson, C., Krekewich, K., & Handley-Derry, M. (1997).

Refugees are people who crossed borders, fleeing due to problems related to race religion and nationality. While fleeing, refugees unknowingly carry many diseases due to lack of mental help and attention. When coming to a new country, refugees have no self-esteem to get jobs due to the language barrier. Refugees who flee their country and sacrifice everything are confident and strong willed with all the obstacles that come through their journey to start a new life. The long-term effects that a refugee experiences due to forced migration is Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, and depression. Forced migration has a negative mental and physical affect on refugees.

Millions of people each year flee their country in order to escape persecution and conflict, seeking asylum as a refugee (Amnesty International Australia 2011). Many refugees present with and develop mental illness due to having experienced or witnessing events such as rape, torture, war, imprisonment, murder, physical injury and genocide, before fleeing their homes (Nicholl & Thompson 2004). Refugees are now accessing mental health services for the treatment of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder. Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) defined by DSM-IV-TR is “characterised by the re-experiencing of an extremely traumatic event accompanied by symptoms of increased arousal and by avoidance of stimuli associated with the trauma” (Diagnostic and

Hooton, T., Bradley, S., Cardenas, D., Colgan, R., Geerlings, S., Rice, J., Nicolle, L. (2010).

Schmidt, S. W., Shelley, M. C., Bardes, B. A., Maxwell, W. E., Crain, E., & Santos, A. (2010).

Conner, K. O., Copeland, V. C., Grote, N. K., Rosen, D., Albert, S., McMurray, M. L., Koeske, G. (2010).

School-based social work and school psychology clinicians delivered CBITS in both trials. The studies showed improvements in post-traumatic stress and depressive symptoms among students who had been exposed to violence. Additionally, data was collected from students, parents, and teachers at baseline, three months, and six months for a randomized controlled trial conducted by the RAND Corporation and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (RAND, 2011). The RAND study found there were no significant differences between the early intervention and late-intervention groups at the start of the program. At three months, students in the early intervention group had completed the program; students in the late-intervention group had not yet begun. The early intervention students showed substantial improvement. The magnitude of the difference between the two groups means that 86% of the early-intervention group reported less severe symptoms of post-traumatic stress than would have been expected without intervention (RAND, 2011). In addition, CBITS was also associated with improved school performance. Parents of students in the early-intervention group reported that their children were functioning significantly better in school. At

Another study found that experiencing torture while living in a conflict striven zone was correlated with higher reports of PTSD and depression in adults (13). As with children, adult civilians living in a war stricken area experience trauma or forced displacement higher rates of PTSD and depression (3,14). In fact, a survey of 799 adults in postwar Afghanistan reported that depression, anxiety and PTSD had a prevalence of 67.7%, 72.2% and 42%, respectively (15). Another study found that nearly half of adults in Afghanistan reported experiencing traumatic events, with the number of traumatic events experienced positively correlating with more mental health symptoms (16). Similar trends have been shown in adults in Cambodia (17,18), Chechnya (19,20), Israel (21), Lebanon (22) and many other conflict ridden countries (23,24). Children and adults experience severe negative mental health outcomes due to conflict and internal displacement, but living in these areas often comes with negative physical consequences as

Farrell, R. M., Metcalfe, J. S., McGowan, M. L., Weise, K. L., Agatisa, P. K., & Berg, J.

Argument: Summerfield’s article is largely a critique of a modernised approach to humanitarian aid in the form of psychotherapy. This article argues, through the example of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), that in many ways Humanitarian aid is still a Westernised way of approaching post-war intervention. Summerfield critiques seven assumptions that are made when psychological trauma programs are deployed, assumptions which are largely taken for granted facts in the West such as war causes traumatisation, mental health emergencies and requires urgent psychological help.

America’s President Donald Trump continues to campaign against allowing refugees into the country by attempting to pass two executive orders that halts refugee resettlement and an executive order against sanctuary cities; yet, the Federal courts have deemed the orders to be unconstitutional. But despite the interjections of the executive orders, Donald Trump has influenced much of society that refugees and immigrant entry provides an outlet for terrorist attacks. Once the public began to connect terrorism with the general refugee population, refugees began to experience discrimination acts and prejudice attitudes. For instance, the media has broadcasted instances where refugees have been arrested under ‘suspicion’ and also where pedestrians have mocked and harassed refugees in public. Mr. Beshir shared an example where this political environment has taken a toll on one of his client’s: “I feel like people look at me differently than before…just not in a good way” (G. Beshir, personal communication, April 21, 2017). Furthermore, the negative perspective upon refugees just adds to the trauma that majority of the refugees suffer from. The impacts of the political environment could heighten post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms, which could ultimately result in severe depression, isolation, or

Matejas, V., Hinkes, B., Alkandari, F., Al-Gazali, L., Annexstad, E., Aytac, M.B., . . .Zenker, M.

The mental health of adolescents is fairly considered to be one of the major prerequisites of the country 's sustainable development in economics, culture, and social life. Subsequently, the easy and nondiscriminatory access to the psychological treatment appears to be a matter of top priority for the federal government. Nevertheless, the recent statistical data indicates the substantial problems in terms of providing the adolescents with the necessary medical support. In accordance with the US Department of Health & Human Services, in 2014, less than 50% of the country 's adolescent population were provided with a required treatment (US Department of Health & Human Services). Moreover, the data on the minorities ' access to the mental health treatment demonstrates that, for instance, African-Americans are twice as likely as whites to be prescribed a treatment from schizophrenia (American Psychological Association). Undoubtedly, such a trend may be primarily explained by the insufficient efforts of both federal and local health care institutions in terms of providing the minorities ' representatives with the necessary psychological treatment. Consequently, in order to understand comprehensively the problem of the adolescent mental health in the US, it is necessary to define the issue-related objective and subjective concerns as well as to analyze the peculiarities of a potential corrective to the