CMHA Ontario hosted two webinars in February to share expertise and support the community mental health sector in responding to the needs of Syrian and other refugee populations. Each webinar focused on providing people and organizations in the community mental health sector with information, tools and resources to inform work with marginalized populations. The first webinar featured guest speakers Dr. Branka Agic, Manager of Health Equity at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) and Mahmoud Allouch, Syria Project Coordinator at the Arab Community Centre of Toronto (ACCT). Agic said that while refugees may experience significant psychological distress in their home country as a result of ongoing violence and everyday hardship, the majority of refugees recover after reaching safety. For refugees who do experience mental health challenges following migration, anxiety disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder and depression are the most prevalent. Allouch shared how ACCT is working to connect Syrian newcomers with resources to help.
The second webinar focused on child and youth refugee mental health and featured psychiatrists Dr. Priya Raju and Dr. Debra Stein of the Hincks-Dellcrest Centre. During this webinar, the experts emphasized that resilience and adaptation are the norm when it comes to child and youth refugee mental health and encouraged participants to examine each child on a case by case basis. If a child or youth is identified as needing mental health support, Raju and Stein recommended checking in with other supporting adults and following the family’s lead when providing care.
Webinars are now archived on the CMHA Ontario website for those who are interested in viewing the resources. The next webinar in this four part series will share stories of migration and mental health and will be held on April 25. For more information, visit ontario.cmha.ca/refugeemh.