Note to readers: This article reminded me that I have not kept up our page called “your state,” and I noticed that lots of you go there for information. Sorry! Posting is so much more fun then blog maintenence! You will find our search function is pretty good and if you type in the name of your state, you should find anything we have written about where you live.
Anyway, back to Vermont where the folks are compassionate about their (large?)* number of refugees (5000), 50-80% of whom are suffering with some mental health problems.
When refugees arrive on American soil — in steadily increasing numbers, now nearly 5,000 in Vermont — resettlement efforts are centered on basic necessities, finding a home and hopefully a job, functioning in an utterly foreign culture. Talk to them and they tell you they are grateful. They know that they are the lucky ones. And yet. A fresh start and a welcoming community cannot shut off an inner slideshow of suffering, violence, loss and fear. The young man’s story above is both singular and part of the commonality among refugees. They all fled from something.
According to Karen Fondacaro, director of UVM’s Behavior Therapy and Psychotherapy Center, 50 to 80 percent of refugees are estimated to have significant mental health issues, primarily post-traumatic stress disorder, and symptoms related to anxiety and depression. So in July 2007 she stepped into the void, with a team of passionate graduate students, launching Connecting Cultures, a groundbreaking clinical science program with three components: community outreach, direct mental health services, and research that will allow them to formally assess their approach and offer a map for other refugee resettlement communities. To Fondacaro, the psychological and physical, spiritual and cultural are inseparable, fundamental aspects of survival.
They need funding (who doesn’t).
* For numbers of refugees to each state check out this post and follow links to databases. You will note that Vermont is one of the smaller refugee-receiving states. Some states have resettled hundreds of thousands of refugees and just imagine if 50-80% are suffering from mental stress.
We have a category called “health issues” (71 posts in it) you might want to check out too. There are lots of other health related problems resettlement communities must face.