Centering Families: Developing a whole-family services framework for trauma and torture-affected families and U.S survivors of torture programs

Many topics were discussed during the 2024 ORR Survivor of Torture Recipient Meeting, held in Washington, DC on March 20th, 2024. During this session, Mary Bunn, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry at the University of Illinois, Chicago presented on Centering Families: Developing a whole-family services framework for trauma and torture-affected families and U.S survivors of torture programs, two insightful presentations were delivered, each delving into unique programs designed to provide support for children of survivors.

Description: In this presentation, Dr. Mary Bunn reviewed the literature on the family system needs of torture-affected families and current evidence for family-based interventions. She discussed findings from a preliminary survey of family-based services among SOT programs and provided an overview of the Centering Families project goals, approach, and methodology. She also invited participant input into the project and discussed the implications of advancing a holistic framework that can more fully support the health, wellbeing, and successful adjustment of torture survivors and their families.

Biography of Presenter: Mary Bunn, PhD, LCSW is an Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois Chicago, Department of Psychiatry. She is also a core faculty member and Co-Director of the Global Mental Health Research and Training Program in the UIC Center for Global Health and a clinical faculty member in the Mood and Anxiety Disorder Program.

Dr. Bunn is currently a K01 career development awardee from the National Institute of Mental Health. She is principal investigator of a study to adapt an evidence-based multiple family group intervention for Arabic-speaking refugees for use by peer providers in community-based organizations. Dr. Bunn’s research program is informed by her extensive clinical and applied experience including seventeen years working with survivors of torture and political violence in the U.S and in post-conflict and humanitarian settings around the world.