Mental Health Care and Treatment, Refugees, and Therapists' Cultural Competence

Reading Journal
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Reading Journal
Article 1: Integrating Mental Health Care into School or Medical Settings
This article discusses how mental healthcare can be integrated into school or medical settings to help refugees and children. It is typical for refugee families not to care about their mental health or their children because of the busyness of finding one's footing in another country. Also, stigma and the aspect of children and parents exhibiting a honeymoon phase after resettling further negates or pushes mental health. However, the article indicates a need to adopt and implement models of care that can help improve the mental health of the children of refugees.
One model that is made evident is the school-based model, which entails using school-based mental health services to help offer mental health help to the refugees' children. However, this approach is quite limited, especially considering the aspect of including parents in the journey and determining how home influences the children's mental state. But, the approach that is touted to have the most impact is trauma systems therapy for refugees. This model has four tiers, including community outreach (tier 1), skills-based groups (tier 2), regulation-focused & beyond trauma (tier 3), and safety-focused (tier 4). This model makes use of already existing health frameworks to help provide help to where it is needed.
Critical Review
While trying to help a community with mental health issues, there is a need to make sure that such a community is involved. Helping a refugee community combat a problem that they may not necessarily be aware of or consider less of an immediate problem can be quite a challenge. The article presents a case for a model that involves the community and seeks to ensure safety for the children while also de-stigmatizing the community through education.
Discussion Question: What are some of the metrics or factors that will be assessed or that will help paint a picture of improvement for the professionals?
Article 2: Outpatient Socioecological and Trauma Treatments with Refugee and Immigrant Youth and Families
This article takes a different approach to treating mental health. The article starts by acknowledging the challenges often experienced by refugees and their families after they have moved. However, a warning is issued overusing trauma-focused models immediately on the refugees and their families. The article speaks of the possibility of first addressing what are known as core stressors, including isolation, trauma, acculturation, and resettlement. It is made clear that this process or stage forms the basis of establishing the deep mental health problems that the refugees and their families are suffering.
There have been some positive results regarding trauma-focused cognitive behavior therapy and cognitive-behavioral intervention for trauma. These two models are effective in helping address mental health issues and trauma for immigrant and refugee children. For both of these models, psychoeducation is considered crucial, especially in helping drive awareness of trauma, exposure, and relaxation. There is another model that is included in the article, and it is called narrative exposure t...