By Myron Eshowsky | co-director, Social Health Care Program
In March, the Social Health Care Program for Syrian Refugee Children and Families (SHC) coordinated all psychosocial treatment offerings as part of a mass medical triage along with the National Arab American Medical Association. Eleven SHC trained staff and volunteers provided trauma treatment services to a vast array of refugees along with providing groups for children and stress management classes. With a crew of 20 medical doctors along with nurses and dentists, the collaboration was able to serve approximately 8,000 refugees for a wide variety of acute medical and mental health needs. It was the largest collaboration thus far. Additional coordinated events with NAMA and SHC are now scheduled for July and in October, 2015. Special efforts are made to serve those refugees that are in areas of Jordan that tend to be the least served.
SHC continues to expand upon its virtual and online training programs to help develop services in the region. Psychosocial services and professional staff (psychologists, psychiatry, psychiatric nurses, and social workers) are virtually non-existent. In the upcoming months, the training will be expanded to move beyond crisis intervention and stress management training. Trainings in narrative therapy, EMDR, expressive arts therapy, special needs of children in therapy have been scheduled for the coming months. In October, SHC will be sponsoring a number of special trainings in Jordan to address needs on the ground. Examples of this include:
a. Michigan State University, Dept. of Psychiatry staff, will be offering specialized training in trauma psychiatry. Duplicating a model they have developed in the U.S., they will be additonally offering a special training for Imams in how to address and refer mental health issues within the refugee population.
b. Specialized training in therapy for children with emphasis on two issues being heavily requested by the refugee community: chronic bedwetting and nightmares related to trauma, and how to address self mutilaton (cutting) amongst pre-teens/teens.
c. Training in Narrative therapy and in non violent communication.
d. Annual Transgenerational Trauma Conference in Amman with special trainings for Syrian refugee issues.
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