Ukrainian Refugee Mental Health Profile
This article provides insight into mental health needs and barriers to care of Ukrainian refugees in the greater Seattle area. It also serves as a resource for providers to deliver culturally relevant and respectful care to Ukrainian immigrants, primarily refugees.
July 7, 2023 · Article, PDF
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Ukrainian – Health and Culture Resources
A collection of health and behavioral health resources specific to Ukrainian refugee arrivals.
April 22, 2022 · Article, PDF, Video
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Neuropsychological Evaluation for Citizenship Test Exemptions (N-648)
Article discussing options to be considered prior to getting a neuropsychological evaluation for US citizenship test exemptions.
February 19, 2020 · Article
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Somali Refugee Mental Health Cultural Profile – Literature Update
In 2016, the Epidemiology and Research Literature Summary section of EthnoMed's Somali Refugee Mental Health Cultural Profile was updated with new information based on a review of research articles published 2004-2015. These updates are presented here.
July 21, 2016 · Article
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Introductory and Referral Scripts for the RHS-15
Helpful scripts about bringing up symptoms associated with mental health issues, and making referral to counseling, upon administering the Refugee Health Screener 15 (RHS-15).
April 4, 2016 · Article
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Adherence Barriers to Antidepressants among an Urban Female Latino Population
An article highlighting insights from providers and patients about risk factors, protective factors and interventions related to adherence barriers to antidepressants among urban Latinos.
July 18, 2013 · Article
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Refugee Health Screener-15 (RHS 15) Packet
The RHS-15 is a tool for screening refugees for emotional distress and mental health. Packet includes the RHS-15 tool, background on the tool’s development, and guidelines on using the RHS-15 with recently resettled refugees.
December 19, 2012 · PDF
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Saving Face: Recognizing and Managing the Stigma of Mental Illness in Asian Americans
The overarching goal of the video is to demonstrate a culturally competent approach to addressing the stigma of mental illness in Asian-American patients.
January 26, 2011 · PDF, Video
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Resources on Cultural Competence in Mental Health
Links to websites of model curricula and other materials on cultural competence and diversity in mental health.
June 1, 2010 · Article
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Somali Mental Health
The challenges facing Somali immigrants and refugees in the Twin Cities are complex and their needs are great. Besides facing enormous cultural and language differences, African immigrants and refugees contend with racism, often have limited literacy skills, and hold jobs where they barely earn minimum wage and have difficulty providing for their families.
August 13, 2009 · Article
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¡No soy Loco! / I’m Not Crazy! Understanding the Stigma of Mental Illness in Latinos
The goal of this video is to demonstrate how Latino patients present their stigma of mental illness, and how skilled therapists manage it.
January 1, 2009 · Video
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Somali Refugee Mental Health Cultural Profile
Information about depression, anxiety and PTSD within the Somali refugee community; common beliefs and traditional treatment for mental illness in Somalia, and advice for healthcare providers working with Somali refugees.
November 1, 2008 · Article
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Somali Depression Profile
Article about Somali culture, relating to mental health and depression.
March 1, 2006 · Article
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Screening for Depression Among Newly Arrived Vietnamese Refugees in Primary Care Settings
Article reprinted with permission from Western Journal of Medicine. By Dedra Buchwald, MD et al. West J Med, October 1995; 163:341-345.
October 2, 1995 · Article, PDF
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Mental Health and Illness in Vietnamese Refugees
Article reprinted with permission from Western Journal of Medicine by Steven J. Gold, PhD, Whittier, CA. West J Med, Sept. 1992; 157:290-294.
September 6, 1992 · Article
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Working with Refugee Survivors of Torture
Article reprinted with permission from Western Journal of Medicine. By Barbara Chester, PhD and Neal Holton, MPH. West J Med, September 1992; 157:301-304.
September 1, 1992 · Article, PDF
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External Resources
Please also see our Related Websites page for a selected list of websites related to the populations or topics covered on EthnoMed.
This guide provides an overview of Federal civil rights laws that ensure equal opportunity for people with disabilities.
A resource from The National Child Traumatic Stress Network Resource designed as a dyadic training to increase the capacity and partnership of professional interpreters and qualified mental health clinicians working together in order to improve quality and access of services for children, adolescents and families with no or limited English proficiency (LEP) and who have experienced trauma and are seeking mental health
services.
Thousands of Somali refugees have moved to Seattle in search of opportunity and security. Many, haunted by their past, suffer from posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and related problems. A new program developed by UW psychology professor Lori Zoellner and Duniya Lang, founder and director of the Somali Reconciliation Institute (SRI), provides a trauma-focused intervention tailored for the Somali community.
The mission of AACAP is to promote the healthy development of children, adolescents, and families through advocacy, education, and research, and to meet the professional needs of child and adolescent psychiatrists throughout their careers. The website includes many resources including: Asian American and Pacific Islander Resource Library; Anxiety Disorders: Parents’ Medication Guide (in English and Spanish); Anti-Racism Resource Library and more.
To better meet the nation’s mental healthcare needs, the mission of the American Association of Directors of Psychiatric Residency Training is to promote excellence in the education and training of future psychiatrists.
This 2008 monograph is an update of an earlier (1997) Resource Guide by the APA Committee on
Minority Elderly in partnership with the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry’s
Committee on Ethnic Minority Elders.
In October 2012, The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) & the Refugee Health Technical Assistance Center (RHTAC) released a new report detailing an investigation into suicides that have occurred from 2009-2012 among Bhutanese resettled refugees in the U.S.
HealTorture.org is the website of the National Capacity Building Project of The Center for Victims of Torture, and is a resource center for people who are interested in healing after torture. They have provided a list of resources about caring for Bhutanese refugees.
Information from Canada’s largest mental health teaching hospital, factsheets about mental illness & addiction in many languages including “Asking for Help When Things Are Not Right: What is part of the normal reaction to living in a new country”.
Little research has been conducted on the prevalence of physical health problems in Cambodian refugees and the relationship between their mental and physical health. We identified the relationship between mental and physical health problems and barriers to healthcare access in Cambodian refugee adults.
This training manual (146 pages) provides a multidisciplinary learning method on credibility assessment, tailored to the needs of asylum decision-makers and other asylum professionals. It provides a framework for developing knowledge, skills and attitude through multidisciplinary learning to help asylum professionals reduce the possibility of errors, reach more objective and fair credibility findings, as well as to apply a more structured approach to credibility assessment. This publication was coordinated by the Hungarian Helsinki Committee.
Cultural Diversity & Ethnic Minority Psychology® seeks to advance the psychological science of culture, ethnicity, and race through the publication of empirical research, as well as theoretical, conceptual, and integrative review articles that will stimulate further empirical research, on basic and applied psychological issues relevant to racial and ethnic groups that have been historically subordinated, underrepresented, or underserved.
2012 article published in the journal Nature. The study of autism around the globe must account for a variety of behavioral norms in different societies.
An international and interdisciplinary forum for the publication of work in the fields of medical and psychiatric anthropology, cross-cultural psychiatry, and associated cross-societal and clinical epidemiological studies.
HealTorture.org is a community website that both supports, and is supported by, people who work in torture treatment centers. The information is intended for people who are working directly with torture survivors. There is also information on the site that's more accessible to the general public, students doing research, or torture survivors themselves. This link goes to the website’s search results for resources on the topic of depression.
This study examines the role of social identity (acculturation and gender) in moderating the association between discrimination and Somali adolescent refugees’ mental health.
The curriculum is designed as a model for faculty and clinicians working to develop a cultural competency curriculum for their pediatric psychiatry fellowship program.
The Division of Social and Transcultural Psychiatry is a network of scholars and clinicians within the Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, McGill University, devoted to promoting research, training and consultation in social and cultural psychiatry.
Dr. Raj Sundar explores the history and culture of Washington's diverse communities so clinicians can be better equipped with the right knowledge to care for all patients. By better understanding their worldview, providers can become better at taking care of their patients.
An article highlighting the beneficial impact of a community garden space on the mental health of its community members.
This article summarizes ethical issues that arise when researching common mental disorders within the Somali communities in the UK. It addresses the danger of researching these disorders from a Eurocentric perspective which risks overlooking the difference in conceptualization of mental illness between different cultures in the West and Somalia.
A Dec 13, 2017 news release from Kaiser Family Foundation about how increased fears around being an immigrant are having significant negative effects on children.
HealTorture.org is the website of the National Capacity Building Project of The Center for Victims of Torture, and is a resource center for people who are interested in healing after torture. While most of the information on the website is intended for people who are working directly with torture survivors, there is also information on the site that's more accessible to the general public, students doing research, or torture survivors themselves. This link goes to the website’s search results for resources on the topic of mental health.
Affiliated with the Anxiety Disorders Clinic, the Center of Excellence for Cultural Competence is one of the few research centers in the country focused on cultural competence that is affiliated directly with a mental health authority.
Conversation with medical interpreter, Jennifer Huong discussing how unprocessed trauma manifests and how the lack of community spaces can lead to further isolation.
Podcast conversation about the Cambodian community with James Heng, a DSHS-certified Khmer interpreter and Khmer Health Board Member- trauma, mental health, interpreter services, & traditional practices.
This 2017 article outlines causal evidence of the impact of parents’ unauthorized immigration status on the health of their U.S. citizen children.
The RHS-15 is a tool for screening refugees for emotional distress and mental health. Packet includes the RHS-15 tool in English, background on the tool’s development, and guidelines on using the RHS-15 with recently resettled refugees. RHS-15 has also been translated into Somali, Russian, Arabic, Burmese, Karen and Nepali. Packet includes contact information to request bilingual versions of the RHS-15.
Published in 2018 by the Gulf Coast Jewish Family & Community Services, this 2 page report provides information about country, language and minority populations of Burma, including helpful tips for refugee resettlement workers and mental health providers, information about healthcare in refugee camps, and cultural beliefs and customs.
Refugees Northwest, a program of Lutheran Community Services Northwest, has programming that includes: trauma-focused mental health support, torture treatment, unaccompanied minor foster care, asylum assistance, complex medical case management, immigration assistance, drop-out prevention, refugee elder support, and forensic medical and mental health evaluations.
Journal article (2012) from "Mental Health in Family Medicine" that explores refugees' perspectives regarding the nature of communication barriers that impede the exploration of trauma histories in primary care.
The Society for the Study of Psychiatry and Culture (SSPC) is a nonprofit, interdisciplinary organization devoted to furthering research, clinical care & education in cultural aspects of mental health & illness.
RHTAC provides several tools and resources to help address problem of suicide in refugee communities. These include a Refugee Suicide Prevention Training Kit as well as more information about the problem of suicide in refugee communities.
The Culture of Emotions is a cultural competence and diversity training program exploring the variety of ways the diverse cultures of America understand mind and body — and the disorders to which mind and body are subject. It is designed to introduce cultural competence and diversity skills to all clinicians and students who work with clients with mental health issues in academic, community mental health, or managed care settings.
March 2016 SpringerPlus journal article discussing different perceptions of cultural comptence, and possible solutions to improve research, practice, and policy on cultural competence in mental health.
Transcultural Psychiatry is a fully peer reviewed international journal that publishes original research and review articles on cultural psychiatry and mental health. Cultural psychiatry is concerned with the social and cultural determinants of psychopathology and psychosocial treatments of the range of mental and behavioural problems in individuals, families and communities.
Trauma Informed Care (TIC) is an organizational structure and treatment framework that involves understanding, recognizing, and responding to the effects of all types of trauma. It emphasizes physical, psychological and emotional safety for both consumers and providers, and helps survivors rebuild a sense of control and empowerment. The TIC Project examines policies, practices and organizational structures to help prevent re-traumatization, and aims to educate and train practitioners in evidenced based trauma informed services.
Video on YouTube from the American Academy of Pediatrics about trauma-informed pediatric care for children of immigrant/refugee status.
The National Child Traumatic Stress Network provides a PTSD reaction index on their website.
University of Southern California Dept of Nursing Article discussing barriers to minority health care (2018).
WACP promotes the exchange of scientific and educational information on the role of culture in psychological wellbeing, emotional stress and illness, and mental health care around the world.
These guidelines were developed to provide recommended management strategies for conditions specifically related to stress, including symptoms of acute stress, post-traumatic stress disorder and bereavement.
This request form is for a free publication (114 pg, PDF) designed for mental health professionals, clinicians and social workers who have the privilege of working with refugees. The Guide tackles important topics such as barriers to care, overcoming obstacles, clinical considerations in assessment, treatment planning, working with interpreters, medication adherence, and trauma. Produced by International Counseling and Community Services(now Refugees Northwest), a program of Lutheran Community Services Northwest.
Offers counseling services to newcomers who are
experiencing sadness, anger, anxiety, fear,
depression, difficulty sleeping, or any
other distress. PDF flyer in English and Arabic.
World Psychiatric Association's website with information about Transcultural Psychiatry.