Discourses and Practices in Social Work and Trauma Focused Work with Syrian and Other Refugees

Abstract

This chapter takes up perspectives informed by critical race and critical Whiteness theory together with an epistemology of difference, in order to deconstruct the overt and implicit assumptions that inform trauma-focused social work practice in the space of refugee trauma, mental health, recovery and settlement. Social work practitioners rely on multidisciplinary theoretical understandings and knowledge usually entrenched in Western ideologies to understand the complex face of trauma, including post-traumatic stress (PTS) and other mental health presentations among Syrian and other refugees. Such an approach risks isolating and pathologizing refugees if it is not accompanied by an active understanding of the cultural determinants and social dimensions of trauma and resilience. Understanding how refugees resettling in Australia might be assisted or impeded by the professional acculturation and approach of the practitioners who work with them is essential. Constructs of ‘best practice’ often essentialize refugees as the subjects of trauma discourse, marginalizing the refugees’ voices and ignoring the impact of their intrinsic and extrinsic cultural conditioning on their resettlement process in the receiving (host) country. This chapter critically examines social work discourse and trauma-informed practices with refugees and also draws on the experience and positioning of the authors themselves. It deliberates an alternative view of cultural constructs of social healing in trauma-informed practice established in a biopsychosocial framework that links issues affecting refugees’ settlement process to the complex intersectionality between White Western approaches to trauma-informed care and the individual, social and political contexts of refugees’ lived experiences. Gaining this understanding could provide profound insights into mental health/PTS for this group and highlights that there is no ‘one size fits all’ practice approach to settlement.