Rebuilding Community with Refugee Survivors of Torture: A Shared Journey

As forced migration across the globe continues to escalate, immigration reform and basic human rights for countless displaced persons seeking refuge remains contentious. Meanwhile refugees and asylum seekers confront mounting... [ view full abstract ]

As forced migration across the globe continues to escalate, immigration reform and basic human rights for countless displaced persons seeking refuge remains contentious. Meanwhile refugees and asylum seekers confront mounting environmental, legal and personal challenges with everyday life in a host country. Though Occupational Therapy is beginning to address these pressing needs, overall our education about, and practice with, refugee populations is persistently under represented. Given increasing forced migration, many who have suffered unthinkable trauma will present in our everyday work; be it clinic, school or hospital. The onus is on us to ensure our practice is trauma informed, cross culturally sensitive and we are educated to the larger political realities affecting the community environments we all share.

Consistent with Occupational Therapy’s historical values, and guided by our global vision to meet a diverse society’s needs, occupational therapists can not only facilitate refugees’ adaptation to new and unfamiliar contexts, but can work along side refugee populations to shape new vibrant communities. The population of refugees and political asylees, many survivors of politically sanctioned torture, present with obvious and nuanced challenges, as well as inherent strength, skills and wisdom.

This workshop will describe occupational therapy practice and perspectives in a community based program working with survivors of torture. Inventive collaborative interdisciplinary service models, occupational therapy interventions, research findings from the literature and contributions to advocacy and will be described. Applications to multiple clinical settings and student training will be illustrated. Future opportunities and challenges for practice will be considered.