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Meet Paw, a refugee from Burma seeking medical care in the U.S. for her headaches, nightmares and physical pain. She’s unfamiliar with the U.S. primary care system and she doesn’t speak English. Waiting alone at her first doctor appointment, Paw wonders, “How will the doctor understand me? What if I don’t like my interpreter? Will I ever be healthy again?” Paw’s questions don’t end there. They’re only a few of several listed in in CVT’s new manual, “Improving Well Being for Refugees in Primary Care: A Toolkit for Providers.”  Paw is a fictional character whose real-life experiences mirror those of clients in CVT’s Healing Hearts program.

This interactive map showcases over 50 programs and services around the country that are designed to help immigrant and refugee professionals achieve success in the United States. These programs and services focus on career preparation, ESL for high-skilled immigrants, and licensing and credentialing guidance, and are hosted by service providers, advocacy and public education institutions, and technical assistance and resource providers.

Glass N(1), Ramazani P, Tosha M, Mpanano M, Cinyabuguma M. Glob Public Health. 2012;7(2):184-95. 

Link is to abstract; full article available for purchase.

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) remains an all-too-potent reminder of how war, human rights violations and their related health and economic impacts can devastate a society. The last decade has seen the use of rape as a weapon of war in the DRC, where rebels and soldiers subject women and girls to brutalising attacks, rape, torture and mutilation.

In my work with survivors of torture in Jordan, every day I see how social services are an integral and extremely important element of healing. CVT uses an interdisciplinary model of care in our Jordan program, and social services represent the third angle of CVT’s services triangle, fully integrated with the other two disciplines: mental health counseling and physiotherapy. With this interdisciplinary approach, we are able to better serve beneficiaries (clients).

This set of handouts, and the description that follows, was generously shared by Jennifer Shuart of Lowell Community Health Center's Metta Center in July 2016. Ms. Shuart is available to consult if you have further questions; contact healtorture@cvt.org for an introduction.

We began administering the RHS-15 screening in July 2015 at Metta.  What we observed prior to this is that clients were referred after a negative screening for behavioral health, but when they came in for the intake appointment really had no understanding of counseling or desire to engage in treatment.

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Survivors of torture experience numerous psychosocial stressors that threaten individual well-being in resettlement. This study reports findings from a pilot test that applied the newly developed Survivors of Torture Psychosocial Well-Being Index. The study used a case-level mixed design to assess survivor psychosocial well-being across 16 life domains from intake up to 18 months. Ecological systems theory grounds this study. Participants demonstrated increased well-being as evidenced by statistically significant change on the mean ratings of their total scores.

This new literature review was coauthored by The National Capacity Building Project at the Center for Victims of Torture, the National Partnership for Community Training at Gulf Coast Jewish Family & Community Services, and an expert in the torture rehabilitation field. It was published in Torture Journal (Vol. 26 No. 1).

Group treatment is an approach that can be used with larger groups of survivors and addresses a range of treatment issues. The authors examined key clinical practice issues for group treatment, including group composition and content, facilitation, and measurement strategies. The article points to a growing interest in the topic of group treatment for survivors of torture and severe violence, providing a comprehensive picture of group-based interventions, and highlighting the need for additional research and knowledge-building.