Groupwork with Refugees and Survivors of Human Rights Abuses describes, explores and promotes the power of groupwork for refugees and survivors of human rights abuses in a range of contexts. Drawing on multiple theoretical approaches, the book features chapters from practitioners running groups in different settings, such as torture rehabilitation services, refugee camps, and reception centres. The voices of participants demonstrate the variety, creativity, and value of group and community approaches for recovery. The editors have gathered chapters into three sections covering: community-based approaches; groups that work through the medium of "body and soul"; and group approaches that focus on change through the spoken word. The book will be relevant to those working in rehabilitation, community, mental health, and humanitarian fields and are interested in using groupwork as part of their services. The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license
This volume engages human rights, domestic immigration law, refugee policy in the United States, Canada, and Europe, and scholarship to examine forced migration, refugee resettlement, asylum seeker experiences, policies and programs for refugee well-being in North America and Europe. Given the recent "re-politicization" of forced migration and refugees in Europe and the U.S., this edited collection presents an in-depth, multi-dimensional analysis of the history of policies and laws related to the status of refugees and asylum seekers in the U.S., Canada, and Europe and the challenges and prospects of refugee and asylum seeker assistance and integration in the 21st century. The book provides rich insights on institutional perspectives critical to understanding the politics and practices of refugee resettlement and the asylum process in the U.S., Canada, and Europe, including international human rights and humanitarian law as well as domestic laws and policies related to forced migrants. Issues addressed include social welfare supports for resettled refugees; culturally responsive health and mental health approaches to working with refugees and asylum seekers; systemic failures in the asylum processing systems; and rights-based approaches to working with forced migrant children. The book also examines policy developments and strategies to advance the well-being and social inclusion of refugees in the U.S. and Europe.
The counselling profession in the United States is calling for increased international collaboration, engagement, and understanding of the global issues which impact the way in which counsellors conduct their professional practice, teaching, and research. This book captures the experiences of group workers the world over, inviting them to describe how they facilitate group work to restore wellness, promote healing, and create opportunities for reducing isolation and alienation by tapping into the wisdom of multicultural or indigenous practices. The group work profession underscores the importance of training and service delivery that is rooted in humanistic narratives, with a focus on understanding cross-cultural dynamics. Included in this collection are examples of the rich, creative, and diverse world of group work applications, all of which contribute to a greater knowledge, awareness, and understanding of the many ways in which the power of group membership and leadership can be harnessed for positive change. Group work teachers, practitioners, and counsellor educators will enjoy learning about these creative and important efforts, and take away ideas to implement in their own group work. This book was originally published as two special issues of The Journal for Specialists in Group Work.
Explore the latest research and practice information in group work! Group Work: Strategies for Strengthening Resiliency is a collection of research and information presented at the Twentieth Annual International Symposium on Social Work with Groups. Resiliency issues are explored in relation to children, couples, managers, survivors of torture, poor women, HIV/AIDS affected youth, and other population groups. The contributors were keynote speakers and paper presenters at the symposium. They represent a wide range of fields of practice and experience. For social workers, students, educators, and practitioners, this volume examines how group work can improve resiliency in your community. Here's a sample of what you'll find inside: Keynote Speaker Jeremy Woodcock's experiences in his groundbreaking resiliency work with victims of torture Alex Gitterman's brilliant exposition of the notions of resiliency and vulnerability--he outlines the current thinking and puts it into a group work context case examples that illustrate resiliency in children a discussion of how residential settings can function like a 24-hour group and how to use that group effectively to strengthen the resiliency of the residents a way to use groups to help develop social and economic capital for poor women through investment clubs group themes and practice strategies for group work with couples who have differing HIV status Group Work: Strategies for Strengthening Resiliency also contains chapters reflecting the personal experiences of the authors. One shares her transformation from a worker who did case work in a group into a social group worker. Another shares a reminiscence of a personal journey during her formative years as a budding group worker. From its description of how the use of group work principles and skills can benefit managers and programs to its challenge to group workers to incorporate some community work skills into their repertoire, Group Work: Strategies for Strengthening Resiliency is more than a fascinating read--it is a tool to help you keep abreast of the latest theory and practice in this ever-changing field.
A landmark book that maps a radical model not only for the "helping" professions but for the work of solidarity This timely and pathbreaking volume maps a radical model of accompaniment, exploring its profound implications for solidarity. Psychosocial and ecological accompaniment is a mode of responsive assistance that combines psychosocial understanding with political and cultural action. Accompaniment--grounded in horizontality, interdependence, and potential mutuality--moves away from hierarchical and unidirectional helping-profession approaches that decontextualize suffering. Watkins envisions a powerful paradigm of mutual solidarity with profound implications for creating commons in the face of societal division and indifference to suffering.
It is estimated that at least 33 million people around the world have been displaced from their homes by war or persecution. Numerous studies have documented high rates of psychological distress among these survivors of extreme violence and forced migration, yet very few have access to clinic-based mental health care. In any case, clinic-based services cannot adequately address the constellation of displacement-related stressors that affect refugees daily, whether in a new region of their homeland or a new country--stressors such as social isolation, the loss of previously valued social roles, poverty and a lack of employment opportunities, and difficulties obtaining education and medical care. Additionally, many refugees from non-western societies find western methods of psychiatric and psychological healing culturally alien or stigmatizing, and therefore underutilize such services. This book brings together an international group of experts on the mental health of refugees who have pioneered a new approach to healing the psychological wounds of war and forced migration. Their work is guided by an ecological model, which, in contrast to the prevailing medical model of psychiatry and clinical psychology, emphasizes the development of culturally grounded mental health interventions in non-stigmatized community settings. The ecological model also prioritizes synergy with natural community resources to promote adaptation, prevention over treatment, the active involvement of community members in all phases of the intervention process, and the empowerment of marginalized communities to address their own mental health needs. Drawing on their expertise in community psychology, prevention science, anthropology, social psychology, social psychiatry, public health and child development, the authors present a variety of highly innovative, culturally grounded interventions designed to improve the mental health and psychosocial well-being of communities that have survived the nightmares of political repression, civil war, and genocide. They discuss the various conceptions of well-being and distress that have informed their projects, their own integrations of western and indigenous approaches to understanding and relieving psychological distress, and in several instances their creative use of well-trained paraprofessionals. They examine with remarkable candor the challenges they have faced in carrying out their work in extraordinarily demanding conditions. An extended introductory chapter reviews and analyzes what we know about the impact of political violence and exile on mental health, and lays out the ecological model in rich theoretical and empirical context. The first of two concluding chapters addresses the critical and often-neglected issue of the evaluation of community-based interventions in conflict and post-conflict settings; the second sums up the implications of the achievements and limitations of the programs described, poses questions that must be answered, such as "How adequate is the PTSD construct in capturing the nature of refugee trauma?", and suggests numerous directions for future research and practice. The Mental Health of Refugees: Ecological Approaches to Healing and Adaptation is an essential reference for all professionals who seek to serve members of this vulnerable population, for those who train and supervise them, and for program administrators and policymakers concerned with refugee well-being. It is also an excellent resource for graduate courses in public mental health, community psychology and psychiatry, refugee and immigrant studies, psychological trauma, medical anthropology, and ethnopolitical violence.
This book has two goals: to educate healthcare professionals about the effect of identity-based adversity on the health of their LGBT patients, and to outline how providers can use the clinical encounter to promote LGBT patients’ resilience in the face of adversity and thereby facilitate recovery. Toward this end, it addresses trauma in LGBT populations; factors that contribute to resilience both across the lifespan and in specific groups; and strategies for promoting resilience in clinical practice. Each chapter includes a case scenario with discussion questions and practice points that highlight critical clinical best practices. The editors and contributors are respected experts on the health of LGBT people, and the book will be a “first of its kind” resource for all clinicians who wish to become better educated about, and provide high quality healthcare to, their LGBT patients.
