The Mental Health Care Of Syrian Refugees

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.

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.

Many Christians were displaced when Islamic forces invaded large Christian cities in Iraq. People from different social and religious backgrounds are at the camps. One thing the people all have in common is the loss of their homes. A priest, Father Douglas Bazi, stated that, “During the first week, the only thing I could hear was crying” (qtd. In “Inside The Refugee Camps Of Northern Iraq”). The refugees were devastated that their homes, and that even some peoples lives were taken away. The refugees do get medical attention for psychological conditions they may have. Experiencing the trauma they had experienced having their home taken away can cause psychological problems. The refugee camps in Iraq house people who have had their homes taken from them.

Gavlak, Dale. "Healing invisible wounds of the Syrian conflict: mental health services are becoming more widely available than ever before to the Syrian population in spite of the crisis." Bulletin of the World Health Organization, Jan. 2016, p. 6+.

In the Illness of Exile, it is reported that 90% of refugees suffer from depression, with post-traumatic stress disorder being overserve in approximately 50% (Moorehead,217). These mental illnesses highlighting the importance of addressing these issues before they become more severe. It is the job of clinicians to help address these issues and develop treatment plans that will best benefit the victims. Helping them to come to terms with their new notions of humanity. Clinicians must work diligently to prevent victims from succumbing to helplessness, by helping them accept its personal and social meaning.

In 2012, Canada received approximately 23,000 refugees and their families (Statistics Canada, 2012). Canada welcomes an ethno cultural diversity and follows the international mandate to ensure safety, stability and accessibility to health services for refugees. The refugees come from different countries, which are socioeconomically unstable, and they are in search of stability and a better destiny. Canada is recognized as one of the most developed countries in the world, it is undeniable that the protection of refugees will be provided. The Ottawa Newcomer Clinic, located in Ottawa, is one of the agencies that welcomes newcomer refugees. This clinic plays an essential role in the reintegration of refugees in their new environment and provides preventive healthcare services. To improve its services, the team members of the clinic are committed to promoting mental health in order to undertake a holistic approach in the care of refugee youths. Consequently, it is important to explore the obstacles facing this particular population using the Population Health model in order to identify startegies for mental health promotion programs that aims to optimize the health status of refugee youths. This brings us to review the importance of mental health among refugees and concepts involved, such as importance of the role of health care providers who have direct contact with the target population as well as mental health promotion.

I arrived to Australia as an immigrant. I read ( ) and find out that Australia is one of the most ethnically diverse country in the world. In 2011, more than one-quarter of the total population was born overseas, with more than half of these population born in non- English speaking country. With my own experience I am reflecting on how stigma come in refugee and it influence health care delivery for them. Refugees came from different countries where language, culture, life style is different from Australia. With some research I found that refugees have a variety of bad experiences in the past, Most have faced deeply distressing and harrowing experiences and many have survived a range of physical, psychological and emotional traumas and I feel that according to my experience when they come to Australia they again face so many challenges, for example language barriers and cultural barriers, which can discourage their ability to use health care facilities.

Refugees experience many traumatic events throughout both their lifetime in their home country and during their trip of refuge. According to an online database by the name of Infobase Learning, “Refugees are at particular risk of developing mental health problems because of the trauma they often experience before and during flight, such as war-related violence, genocide, sexual assault and torture,” (Infobase Learning). By understanding the fact that refugees undergo many harrowing incidents, people may begin to grasp the fact that these events traumatize the refugees making them an unnecessary issue in the United States and other first world countries to deal with. As reported by the National Alliance on Mental Illness, 43.8 million adults in the U.S. alone experience a mental illness in a given year. This number is only increasing every year in addition to the growing amount of refugees we accept annually, the United States and other first world countries will be overloaded with the complication of mental health issues. Considering that daily life is already complicated enough, first world countries should not be obligated to accept refugees. These displaced people need not to come first world countries, instead stay in their own home country. If transported to the U.S. or other first world

Canada’s current immigration policies are failing to meet the diverse and unique needs of Syrian refugees. The purpose of this briefing note is to present recommendations regarding the resettlement of Syrian refugees in Canada, as there is a need for improved health and social support services. Social workers in particular have a crucial role in the resettlement and successful integration of Syrian refugees in Canada.

Colucci et al. (2014) discussed the utilisation of mental health services by children and young people from a refugee background, via a literature review. The study started by identifying the condition that people from refugee backgrounds are always in vulnerable position to develop mental health problems, and suicide, compare with local residents, considering that they have to go through some pre-migrating events to get involved to the new environment. For children, this could be even more serious, considering that children seem to have lower adaptability compare with the adults, and they are more likely to generate mental health issues in the new environment. The research suggested that the reported mental health issues for the youngsters are lower than expected. The research summarized services provided to the refugee background workers and children, and also tried to identify some important factors that could contribute to provide mental health services to the refugee workers and children. Findings from the research suggested that more researches are urged, as there are still limited evidences to support settlements toward introducing policies and programs for refugee children and young people. However, there are limitations regarding the research, considering that it had not yet provide quantitative research methods or empirical evidences to support the arguments, and it had not identify factors beyond cultural difference that could influence the receive

The way that public and mental health is analyzed is based on a few different categories. Based on the article, how people respond to large emergencies or world problems can be observed through different mental disorders, distress, or behaviors. Some examples of these are post- traumatic stress disorder, commonly seen in veterans, depression, trouble sleeping, or increased drinking and smoking. In this particular study of Lebanon, specific questions were addressed to find if exposure to war-like conditions affected mental health. Authors of the study used a population survey that was nationally representative asking about the “age of onset, lifetime prevalence, and treatment delay for mental disorders.” The amount of war exposure for the individual and the community was also assessed as a risk factor in the experiment.

According to research findings (Heptinstall et al., 2004), the number or scale of traumatic events experienced in a victim’s home country, and also their type or nature, for instance the death of close relatives are associated with higher Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) symptoms. Furthermore the amount of prevailing life stressors are responsible for refugee children’s depression. For instance, enduring seriously pressing financial difficulties like poverty and having an insecure asylum status have been found to cause symptoms of depression in refugee children.

Thikeo, Florin, & Ng (2015) found that for refugee populations gender can be a mental health determinant such that men are less likely to recognize the need for mental health or psychological services. They may be less open to discussing mental health due to the cultural stigmatization of the topic. May et al. (2014) contrasted mental health literacy among Australia-born individuals and refugees located in Australia. They found that Australia-born individuals were more skilled in the proper identification of the symptoms of major depressive disorder (MDD) and PTSD than refugees from Iraq and Sudan. Beliefs of the participants born in Australia were more congruent with those of the western medical model of mental disorders. Refugees were more likely to endorse supernatural and religious causal beliefs regarding MDD and PTSD. This study emphasizes the need for education about specific symptoms and causes of mental disorders as well as the benefits of psychotherapy. Interventions should promote mental health literacy in a way that does not interfere with deeply held religious or spiritual

Although America serves as a haven for refugee families, many of them are faced with the post-trauma stress disorders associated with the severe violence from their homelands. Children may experience depression, and anxiety resulted from wars fought in their country. For example, this could arise from the death of a love one or the loss of leaving a family member behind in their home country. The U. S. Office of Refugees Resettlement collaborates with an area to evaluate the population of immigrants and refugees to establish cultural innovations for the need of a particular group. The goal is to partner with the community agency that monitors, coordinate and give support to those that have experienced traumatic events. For instance, the California Department of Social Services utilizes the Mental Health Services Act of 2013 to allocate funds from residents that earn a substantially amount to the under-serving populations. This money is used to fund psychosocial programs to help refugees to adjust to reinforce cultural protective factors. This act can be done by counseling in schools, using music programs

The research team is performing a post-test outcome evaluation for Karibu Mental Health Services on 26 Karibu participants who are refugees, from two different countries of origin, Syria and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The team will evaluate data collected using the self sufficiency scale and Refugee Health Screener-15 (RHS-15) (Hollifield et al., 2013). This outcome evaluation will have two aims. One is to evaluate participants’ perceived change in overall distress symptoms after the intervention. The second study aim is to examine current trauma scores to see if they correlate to current self-sufficiency scores.