Engaging Refugee Families in a Family-Strengthening Intervention to Promote Child Mental Health and Family Functioning

Abstract

This chapter provides a brief overview of barriers that mental health practitioners face when working with refugee children and families and the importance of engaging with refugee communities in equitable partnerships in order to improve engagement in, and effectiveness of, family strengthening interventions. Challenges include stigma around mental health as well as formal mental healthcare systems not well adapted to meet the needs of refugee families. Practical barriers include the challenge of prioritizing addressing mental health problems, while refugee families are in the midst of dealing with competing stressors related to displacement or third country resettlement. Other issues arise within the clinical encounter, such as dependence on outside interpreters for communication between practitioners and clients, which make engaging in treatment challenging and undesirable. Authors draw upon their own experiences as refugee community leaders, healthcare professionals, and researchers engaged in community-based refugee mental health work to provide practical recommendations and strategies to overcome these barriers and work with refugee children and families.