Refugee youth: A review of mental health counselling issues and practices.

Abstract

Being a young refugee involves growing up in contexts of violence and uncertainty, experiencing the trauma of loss, and attempting to create a future in an uncertain world. (Correa-Velez, Gifford, & Barnett, 2010, p. 1399).The world is experiencing a global refugee crisis. According to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), there are close to 14 million refugees worldwide; the level of human displacement has increased by 50% since 2011 (United Nations High Commission for Refugees [UNHCR], 2016b). The Syrian refugee situation has received a great deal of attention recently; the Government of Canada (2016) has reported that a total of 26,921 refugees have arrived in Canada from Syria since November 2015. Syria is one of the top 10 countries from which refugees have fled to Canada, the other nine being China, Hungary, Pakistan, Nigeria, Colombia, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, and Afghanistan (Citizenship & Immigration Canada, 2016b). Together these countries accounted for almost half of the total refugee claims in Canada in 2015. Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) has reported that just over 32,000 refugees became permanent residents of Canada in 2015 (CIC, 2016a), contributing to a total of 149,163 refugees of all statuses living in Canada; 51% of these refugees are children and youth under the age of 25 (UNHCR, 2016a). In this paper youth typically includes ages 15 to 24 years because this age range is used for this population in most of the literature and institutional reports.Young refugees are a particularly vulnerable group. Although many figures pertaining to refugees in general are approximate because of their chaotic conditions, the reported numbers of refugee children and youth, in particular, are incomplete (Evans, Lo Forte, & McAslan Fraser, 2013). Evans et al. (2013) referred to refugee youth as an invisible population (p. 15). They noted that a third of the global population of displaced people is thought to be between the ages of 10 and 24, with almost half (47%) being under 18. In Canada in 2012, youth between the ages of 15 and 24 comprised 21% of the population of refugees admitted (Guruge & Butt, 2015). A disturbing number of these refugee youth are orphans or travelling alone, either by choice or after separation from parents or caregivers; they are extremely vulnerable to exploitation (UNHCR, 2016a).Newcomers who have been forced to flee their home countries experience a number of difficulties and barriers after arriving in their new host country. About 80% of refugee families receive some social assistance in their first year living in Canada, dropping to 50-60% in the second year (Statistics Canada, 2015b). In 2013, about half (52%) the government-assisted refugee youth (GARs) under 24 were employed; privately sponsored refugees fared bet- ter, with an employment rate of 69% (Statistics Canada, 2015a). Even with the support available from all levels of government and private sponsors, many refugee youth and their families experience challenges in language learning, housing, employment, education, social relationships, and health, including mental health.For this review paper, we focused on mental health issues and challenges that refugee youth face and on good practices that have been found to be effective with these youth. Working with young refugees presents a distinct set of circumstances for counselling psychologists and mental health therapists. Given the adversities that these young people experience premigration, during migration, and after resettlement, it is not surprising that they exhibit symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other mental health disorders (Fazel, Wheeler, & Danesh, 2005). Yet, despite these circumstances, young refugees also demonstrate adaptability, perseverance, and resilience; they possess strengths and attributes that can help them adjust positively to a new home (Correa-Velez et al., 2010; Mawani, 2014). …