Description: Research shows that refugees experience disproportionately high rates of anxiety, depression, substance abuse, and other stress-related disorders. Refugees also face a multitude of barriers to therapeutic services, including lack of culturally appropriate treatment and limited access to interpretation services. In this workshop, Josh Hinson and Laura Garlock will focus on the refugee experience in North Carolina, and explore our ethical obligation as mental health professionals to participate in their care. They will draw from the codes of ethics for social workers, counselors, and psychologists, which include language on providing quality services for all, honoring diversity, embracing multicultural approaches, and obtaining education to understand oppression with respect to ethnicity and immigration status. They will also provide information and resources on best practices for working with refugees in North Carolina.
Trainers: Josh Hinson, LCSW, LCAS is a Clinical Instructor at the UNC School of Social Work, where he serves as Program Director for the UNC-CH Graduate Certificate in Global Transmigration. Josh began working with Cuban refugees in 1995 as a volunteer with Lutheran Family Services in Greensboro, NC. Since then he has worked with indigenous community development organizations in Mexico; with Latino farm workers in eastern NC; as a social worker at a rural county department of social services; and as a mental health and substance abuse counselor with Spanish-speakers. Josh is the Principal Investigator for the UNC Global Transmigration–Refugee Mental Health and Wellness Initiative, a research project designed to assess the need for, feasibility, and acceptability of mental health services for refugees in North Carolina. The project began contracting with the North Carolina State Refugee Office in 2015 to provide mental health services to refugees in three counties.
Laura Garlock, MSW is the Program Coordinator of the UNC Global Transmigration–Refugee Mental Health and Wellness Initiative (Refugee Wellness). She is a recent graduate of the UNC School of Social Work, and during her two years as a student there, she was a research assistant and intern with Refugee Wellness. Laura has been volunteering and interning with organizations serving international populations since 2008 – working with refugees, Latino newcomers, and battered immigrants in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, volunteering with working children and indigenous communities in Ecuador, and teaching English in French middle schools.
Resources:
UNC Chapel Hill School of Social Work Clinical Lecture Series