The NCTSN invites you to join us in observing World Refugee Awareness Month and, on June 20th, World Refugee Awareness Day. In doing so, we focus on the millions of refugees who live around the globe, recognizing their plight as well as their valuable contributions to our communities. It is also a time to consider their needs for basic material, social, and legal protection, as well as for mental health services to help them cope with and heal from the traumatic experiences they have endured.

In the past decade, millions of children have been killed in war, many of them on the front lines as soldiers. From all over the world children who survived have come to the United States after suffering and witnessing unspeakably violent acts. Many of them experience symptoms of posttraumatic stress, among which are anxiety, depression, flashbacks in which they reexperience the horrors of the event, overreaction to trauma reminders, a heightened state of vigilance, emotional numbing, and inability to concentrate.

Traumatized refugee children and their families must deal with their past traumatic experiences while integrating into a new and unfamiliar society. They may feel exiled from their native cultures, from a home country that may no longer even exist as they knew it. They must look for safety in an alien culture, and ask for help in a nonnative language. Children and their families who have experienced war-related trauma and disruption also suffer burdens associated with resettlement such as poverty, unemployment, stigmatization, and bias.

See below for a listing of helpful resources related to refugee awareness.

Children of War: A Video for Educators
A powerful video presentation in which refugee youth tell their own stories about the experience of war. Recommended for educators and others who work with immigrant and refugee youth and children. Because the stories are deeply moving, the video is not recommended for students younger than high school age, and any presentation to youth should be handled with sensitivity and made only after the video has been previewed.

Children of War: A Resource Guide (PDF)
A guide to help educators teaching students of all ages understand the experience of refugee youth and children. Best used in a group setting. Includes discussion questions for educators, suggests ways teachers and schools can help refugee students, and describes the traumatic stress that can result from wartime experiences and resettlement in a new culture.

Culture and Trauma teleconference: Trauma & Mental Health in Child and Adolescent Refugees
B. Heidi Ellis, PhD, and Ruth Campbell, LCSW, discuss the special challenges and opportunities presented in working with traumatized refugee youth.

Mental Health Interventions for Refugee Children in Resettlement: White Paper II (PDF)
Revisits and summarizes the research reported on in White Paper I on the mental health needs of refugee children. Discusses the need for a comprehensive mental health services approach for refugee children. Then focuses on exploring what a comprehensive mental health service model for refugees might look like, based on a review of literature for findings that support the value of specific approaches or techniques. Includes recommendations for next steps toward improving standards of mental health care for traumatized refugee children.

Review of Child and Adolescent Refugee Mental Health (PDF)
A white paper that broadens work done in previous reviews of refugee mental health by discussing the most recent empirical studies of pathology and services among refugees and by describing unique populations of child and adolescent refugees. These data, as well as treatments, are organized by phase of the refugee experience and contextualized in cultural and developmental frameworks. Adaptation and adjustment of refugees, with particular emphasis on coping and use of available resources, are also reviewed.

Survey of National Refugee Working Group Sites 2004: Summary Report (PDF)
Provides information on the nature of services offered by thirteen sites of the NCTSN that work extensively with refugees. While sites use a variety of treatment approaches, all work in collaboration with community-based organizations and various systems of care to reach clients.

Amnesty International

• Human Rights Education Lesson Plans: The Refugee Rights
  An exercise that shows students how to put themselves, at least imaginatively, in the shoes of refugees.

National Center for Children Exposed to Violence

• In the Setting of War: Teachers' Guide for Talking to Your Students (PDF)
  Offers teachers assistance in identifying and addressing signs of adjustment difficulties in students and facilitating conversations in classrooms about the war.

U.S. Department of Education, National Clearinghouse for ESL Literacy Education

• Mental Health and the Adult Refugee: The Role of the ESL Teacher Focuses on how teachers can help refugee and immigrant learners make significant progress in adjusting to new life in an unfamiliar culture. Discusses qualities of mental health and stresses faced by refugees, and includes three things that teachers can do to help their students adjust.

American Academy of Family Physicians

• Medical Care for Immigrants and Refugees
  This article describes medical conditions common to immigrants and refuges, offers screening recommendations, and explains some of the challenges in caring for this population.

The Center for Victims of Torture

• Helping Refugee Trauma Survivors in the Primary Care Setting (PDF)
  This clinical resource is meant for primary health care providers working with refugees or other survivors of war trauma and torture.

The Harvard Program in Refugee Trauma (HPRT)

• Harvard Trauma Questionnaire (HTQ) (PDF)
  A checklist that asks questions about a variety of trauma events as well as the emotional symptoms considered to be uniquely associated with trauma.

The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA)

• Measuring Trauma and Health Status in Refugees: A Critical Review

Human Rights First

• Iraqi Refugees Basic Information on Protection and Resettlement to the U.S.
  Provides information for Iraqis with a U.S. government affiliation, Iraqi students or scholars, Iraqi writers and journalists, all Iraqis in Jordan or Lebanon, and Iraqis with family members in the U.S.

U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants

• Refugee Voices®
  A program established in 1987, based on the idea that the best advocates for refugees are refugees themselves. The site enables refugees to hear and read firsthand testimonies of other refugees, and empowers them to contribute their own voice and help all refugees rebuild peaceful, stable lives.

Adult Learning Resource Center (ALRC)

• 2008 National Refugee and Immigrant Conference: "Issues and Innovations"
  National conference that aims to identify issues, emphasize best practices, and highlight innovations by providing those who work with refugees and immigrants an opportunity to network and learn from one another. Chicago, Illinois, September 25–26, 2008.

Bridging Refugee Youth & Children's Services

• Brighter Futures for Migrating Children: An Overview of Current Trends and Promising Practices in Child Welfare (PDF)

• ENHANCING CHILD CARE FOR REFUGEE SELF-SUFFICIENCY: A Training Resource and Toolkit (PDF)

• Growing Up in a New Country: A Positive Youth Development Toolkit for Working with Refugees and Immigrants (PDF)
  Supports social service providers in developing quality programming for the newcomer youth, ages 13–19, in their communities.

• Guardianship Fact Sheet For Staff Assisting Refugee Families (PDF)

• Promising Practice for Spring 2008: International Kid Success - School Based Counseling Program for Refugee Children

• Raising Children in a New Country: A Toolkit for Working with Newcomer Parents (PDF)

• RAISING CHILDREN IN A NEW COUNTRY: An Illustrated Handbook (PDF)
  Created for agencies serving refugees and immigrants to help give newcomer parents basic information about U.S. laws and parenting practices.

U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants

• Healthy Living Toolkit
  Designed to help in educating refugees and immigrants to become proactive health consumers and promoters in their communities. Supports health professionals, health promoters, ESL teachers, and resettlement case managers in assisting refugees and immigrants to navigate the health system to reduce health disparities among these populations. Material presented in a culturally appropriate manner. Available in eighteen languages.

• Resource Guide for Serving Refugees with Disabilities
  A how-to for caseworkers and advocates who serve refugees to help improve access to services for newly arrived refugees with disabilities.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services & The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)

• Refugee Health Promotion & Disease Prevention Toolkit
  Developed for community organizations to help them find partners and resources. Shows how to plan and carry out health promotion activities so that refugees can learn to feel strong, active, wise, and worthwhile. Includes a manual, training guide, PPT slides, articles, and video, along with a CD-ROM containing all these elements.

Bridging Refugee Youth and Children's Services (BRYCS)

• "Youth Arts and Voices" Web page
  Showcases the creative contribution and artistic talent of refugee and immigrant youth from around the U.S. Presents visual arts by newcomer youth along with countless resources and information about expressive art programs for youth.

National Center for PTSD

• PTSD in Refugees Fact Sheet

The United Nations Refugee Agency

• Website: http://www.unhcr.org