Refugee Health Training

SI refugee health experts provide training to federal, state, local health jurisdictions, resettlement agencies, physicians, healthcare providers, school districts, and relevant entities on culturally and linguistically appropriate services for Afghan refugees. These trainings are aimed at improving 'providers' knowledge, understanding, and skills to work with and provide services to Afghan refugees.

 
 
 
 

With the support from PHI’s Developmental Award and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration (SAMHSA) funded Lotus Project, SI provides technical assistance to service providers working with Afghan refugee children. This technical assistance includes:

  • Provide cultural competency and implicit bias reduction training to service providers to increase awareness and acknowledgment of differences in language, culture, socioeconomic status, political and religious beliefs, identity, and life experiences.

  • Support resettlement agencies, school districts, and County and State officials in design and implementation of health interventions to achieve the highest impact.

  • Train clinicians and service providers to prevent overmedicalization of migratory grief which is a normal human reaction to adversities and adjustment.

  • Train clinicians and service providers on culturally specific idioms of distress so that illnesses are not overlooked (e.g Afghan refugees tend to show strength by understating a medical condition). These trainings are essential for accurate diagnoses and improved patient-provider communication.

  • Some Evidence-Based Practices (EBP), although extensively studied and widely used, do not apply to Afghan refugees due to cultural differences, therefore, we train and help clinicians tailor and introduce culturally congruent interventions to achieve maximum results and avoid unnecessary procedures and costs.

  • We train service providers about the background, context, the prevalence of illnesses among Afghan refugees, and socioeconomic, cultural, and systemic risk and protective factors that lead to medical conditions.

Lotus Project conducts its first workshop focused on trauma among Afghan refugee children in November 2022 in Sacramento, California. Workshop details can be found here.