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Even under the best of circumstances, it’s challenging for immigrants to adjust to a new life in a new country. And when immigrants have fled countries roiled by violence and war, the upheaval and stress in their lives is even more profound. Among refugees, about 10 to 40 percent may experience post-traumatic stress disorder and 5 to 15 percent may have depression, according to the Refugee Health Technical Assistance Center.

Language and cultural differences, however, can be barriers for immigrants who need mental health counseling and treatment, and the stigma around mental health can be hard to counter. Fortunately, organizations are removing those barriers and helping immigrants find support.

A circle of support

The Iraqi Mutual Aid Society (IMAS), an organization supporting immigrants and refugees in their transition to life in Chicago, is focused on fostering well-being. Their support has particularly helped one local immigrant, Ekram Hanna, who has gone on to help remove the stigma around mental health in her community. She’s now creating a safe environment for other immigrants to share their struggles and find their voice.

When Hanna, her husband and her two children immigrated to the United States in 2012, they left their family, friends and religious community behind in Iraq. Once settled in Chicago, they had to assimilate into a vastly different culture.

“It was a hard transition,” Hanna says.

Language barriers, cultural differences and loneliness can lead to depression. It took Hanna about a year to get her bearings, and the absence of family and friends she could lean on for support made the transition even more challenging.

Hanna’s experience made her realize how important connecting with others in a similar situation can be. She joined IMAS in 2017 as a community outreach manager in order to help other women who were adjusting to life in the U.S.

After she was hired, she quickly organized a monthly support group for women that now consists of about 90 women from Iraq, Syria and other countries. Simply talking to other women who are going through similar experiences can be immensely helpful, she says.

“The first thing that can change their life is finding someone who encourages them,” Hanna says.

At the IMAS support group, the women learn practical skills like how to use public transportation and open a bank account. They also discuss issues related to their emotional well-being and safety, such as depression, anxiety and domestic violence. Those topics need to be presented in a culturally appropriate way, Hanna explains.

“We let them know about their rights, encourage them to know more about themselves and be strong,” Hanna says.

Many of the women in the support group come from cultures where mental health disorders have a stigma, which makes it hard for them to admit they are feeling depressed or anxious, she says.

“Because of our culture and the community we used to live in, people expect you to always to be strong and to smile,” Hanna says. “That’s why a lot of people act like they are okay when they are not.”

Read more in ChicagoHealthOnline.com.

Jameil White started drinking alcohol when she was 13 years old. By 17, her substance use – a way to cope with her mental health issues and childhood trauma – had transitioned to methamphetamine and other drugs.

“Once you become addicted to (meth), that’s all you think about,” White recalls. “When you’re coming down from something like that and you’re starting to crash, it’s either, ‘I want to get some sleep and get high again,’ or, ‘I want to get high again.’ You quit thinking properly, you quit bathing, you quit eating, you quit doing your normal daily things that we as humans need to function.”

About three years ago, after using drugs for so long and knowing “so much pain,” White decided to get serious about her recovery. Now 40, she lives in Scottsdale, Arizona, with her husband and two stepchildren, and says she’s remained in recovery in large part due to her family and a handful of online support groups that she helps moderate and manage, where topics range from drug addiction and mental health to suicide prevention.

“My online support network is huge. I know many people from all over the U.S. and also in other countries,” White says. “Some of them are members of (Alcoholics Anonymous), (Narcotics Anonymous). You also have members like myself who no longer go to meetings, but they still need that community and that network, and they reach out through online groups.”

Forums on Reddit and Facebook, like those used and managed by White, provide safe spaces for current and former users, as well as their family members. They offer opportunities to seek help, share stories and celebrate each other’s successes in recovery while facing a socially stigmatized drug addiction for which there is no counteracting medication that can aid in treatment.

White runs multiple support groups connected to her “Warrior Queens and Warrior Kings” public Facebook page, which has more than 4,400 followers, and helps edit and manage other groups related to recovery from substance misuse, addiction, mental health and suicide prevention. Nearly 8,700 Facebook users are members of the closed “Sobriety 101” group that she helps administer.

Julie Richards, 46, founded the Mothers Against Meth Alliance about six years ago after seeking help for her daughter’s meth addiction and realizing there wasn’t a system for support, intervention, prevention and education for the Lakota people on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.

Today, Richards says her daughter is behind bars in connection with her meth use. Richards continues to run what she calls a “one-woman rescue team” to help community members – especially teens – who are under the influence of the “meth spirit” realize there is a future once they overcome their addiction. She offers herself as an emergency resource through her Facebook group and website for families and teens struggling with addiction.

“I tell these kids, ‘There’s only two roads that this meth is going to take you to: one is prison, and the other one is death. It’s up to you. If you’re lucky, you’ll end up in prison,'” Richards says.

Read more on USNews.com.

In order to highlight pockets of excellence across the country, the NNED selects an organization to highlight once a month. Springboard To Opportunities has been selected as the Partner of the Month for April in honor of Minority Health Month and in celebration of their participation in NNEDLearn 2019.

At Springboard To Opportunities, they believe all have a chance at a better future.

Springboard To Opportunities is a nonprofit organization working with residents of affordable housing to help them reach their goals in school, work and life. They do this by working directly with families, as well as by establishing strategic partnerships with other organizations that help residents achieve their goals. Their programs are fundamentally resident-driven; they listen to the needs of the community and create resources that support and empower them as they take steps toward success.

To build pathways for adults, children, and families to realize their dreams, they work with:

• Affordable housing residents
• Real estate developers
• Property management companies
• Neighborhood leaders
• Community stakeholders

The overall goal of the organization’s “radically-resident driven” service delivery model is to increase the self-efficacy of vulnerable families; thereby positioning them to be their best selves in life, school, and work.

Springboard’s approach to empowering vulnerable families to be engaged in the planning, implementation, delivery and evaluation of community program is innovatively different than what is currently being applied in the field. The organization provides direct strategic dual-generation programming.

Springboard To Opportunities has three strategies:

• Springboard To Learning – stress the importance of a good education and the value of life skills
• Springboard To Success – empowers residents to take steps to achieve their short and long term goals
• Springboard To Community – creates a safety net for residents of affordable housing with immediate assistance

Although the strategies are the same across all Springboard communities the programs are customized to each community and informed by resident identified needs, strengths and opportunities.

Learn more about Springboard to Opportunities and how their resident-engaged services can provide a platform for low-income people to advance themselves in life, school and work.

View a list of previous NNED Partners of the Month here.

The state Health Department announced Monday that the “Prevent Suicide Hawaii Statewide Conference: Hope, Help, Healing” will be held on April 11 and 12 at the Ala Moana Hotel.

The state Health Department, in partnership with Emergency Medical Services and the Prevent Suicide Hawaii Task Force, is bringing the community of survivors, service providers, policymakers and health professionals together to address the issue.

Suicide is the most common cause of fatal injuries among residents in Hawaii, according to state officials, and it is estimated that one person dies by suicide every two days.

Over a five-year period from 2013 to 2017, 926 Hawaii residents died from suicide — which is 25 percent of a total of 3,695 fatal injuries — outpacing car crashes, homicide, unintentional poisoning and drowning as a cause of death.

In line with national trends, Hawaii has seen a rising rate of suicide death over the last 10 years, as well as an increase in the annual number of non-fatal suicide attempts. For every completed suicide, there are twice as many hospitalizations and three times as many emergency department visits.

Local and national experts in suicide prevention will offer presentations on a wide range of topics — from increasing awareness of suicide prevention to enhancing skills to respond to those at risk, including those who have survived the loss of a loved one.

Read more on the StarAdvertiser.com.

The Binghamton City School Districts’ new after-school program looks to decrease aggressive behavior through sports and academics.

Preventing Long-Term Anger and Aggression in Youth or PLAAY Program, works to teach students valuable coping skills and in-the-moment stress management strategies.

Various teachers and coaches help mentor upper-class high school students, who then, in turn, mentor younger students.

The mentees are primarily made up of 6th graders from East and West Middle Schools.

The mentors help the younger students with their homework and take part in various sports and other physical training.

Head Football Coach Mike Ramil, who serves as one of the program’s instructors, says they try to translate lessons that can be taught through sports to real-life situations. “The idea is if you can get a kid to understand that if you curse or go after someone on the football field then you’ll get a 15-yard penalty and it’ll hurt the team. If you can get kids to understand that and avoid that on the football field then there’s no reason why they shouldn’t be able to do that in life too.”

Along with the homework and sports help, instructors and mentors hold sessions where they talk with the younger kids about what bothers them.

Read more and watch the news story on BinghamtonHomepage.com. Learn more about PLAAY, one of the NNEDLearn training tracks.

Often, symptoms of the trauma of gender dysphoria need to be lessened before substance use can be treated for transgender and queer people.

People with gender dysphoria experience an onslaught of trauma. First, there’s the turbulence and discomfort caused by society’s judgement that the body you have (which society defines typically masculine or feminine) does not align with the gender that you are. Then, there’s the stress of living in a society that is not often welcoming to or understanding of people who are transgender, queer or non-binary. Even allies can unknowingly cause microaggressions when they rely on an LQBTQ+ individual to educate them about gender and identity.

Unsurprisingly, these traumatic experiences often lead LQBTQ+ people to develop maladaptive coping strategies, including substance abuse, says Alicja Majer, the director of operations at Inspire Recovery, a treatment center in West Palm Beach, Florida that serves LQBTQ+ folks.

“A huge aspect of why we see such rates of self-harm, substance use disorder, eating disorders and suicide among LGBTQ+ people is because of all this internalized distress that is caused by incongruence between how they identify and the sex assigned at birth that resulted in their imposed declaration of male or female,” Majer explains.

When a transgender person enters treatment for substance abuse, professionals often focus on treating their addiction and mental health issues before addressing their gender dysphoria. However, Inspire Recovery takes the opposite approach. Founder and CEO Donna Weinberger explains that addressing the traumatic experience of gender dysphoria and helping clients live as the person they are lays a foundation for healing from trauma, including the substance use disorder.

At Inspire Recovery, clinicians don’t pathologize people with gender dysphoria. Rather, they trust that people who are transgender, non-binary or queer are the experts of their own identity, and take the clients’ lead on how they would like to express themselves and what their identity is. Providers respect clients’ human rights over their body.

“What causes the trauma in people is growing up in a society that is trying to push people to live in an inauthentic way,” Weinberger says. Just allowing individuals to self-identify and honoring their identity is a critical first step for healing, they note. Oftentimes, people come to Inspire Recovery having been misdiagnosed with a myriad of mental health diagnoses, only to find that the symptoms can actually be explained by trauma caused by the experience of gender dysphoria and repressing their true identity.

Read more at TheFix.com