Paper details
| Paper authors | Flora Cohen, Jane Kennedy, and Mozhgan Moarefizadeh |
| In panel on | MHPSS in Crisis Zones: Psychosocial Liberation through Local Knowledge and Decolonised Practice |
| Paper presenter(s) will be presenting |
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Abstract
There are over 123 million forcibly displaced people in the world today, with numbers steadily increasing. The majority of refugees and asylum seekers are displaced in urban settings, with fragmented access to services. For refugees living in countries who are not signatories to the 1951 UN Convention or the 1967 Protocol to the Status of Refugees, such as Indonesia, the situation is even more dire. There are approximately 12,295 refugees and asylum-seekers registered with UNHCR in Indonesia. There are high rates of trauma exposure, and related mental disorders among this stateless and disenfranchised populations. Meanwhile, refugee-led organizations have stepped in to meet critical needs in refugee and asylum seeking communities. We will explore a pilot community-led mental health intervention for refugees and asylum seekers who have been displaced for an extended period of time in Indonesia. This program is a compelling example of a mental health initiative that expands access to vital services, engages refugees in capacity building, and provides a sustainable solution for crucial community needs. The Cope program is a manualized scalable intervention that can be expanded to other displaced communities in settings with limited mental health resources.
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