Presenter: Dre. Ghayda Hassan
Date: February 27, 2017
Summary
Like many refugee children before them, Syrian refugee children currently resettling in Canada may be coping with a range of mental health difficulties as a result of pre-migration, migration or post-migration trauma. How can parents, teachers, settlement and social service providers assist these school-aged children with these difficulties?
In this webinar, psychologist Dr. Ghayda Hassan of the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM). discusses how parents, teachers and settlement and social service providers may effectively talk with children about these difficulties they may be experiencing. Family, community and school members can provide support to children, exploring their reactions to integration, loss or violence, and assist children to develop more effective ways of coping. In addition, the webinar will discuss in what situations children’s symptoms require a mental health services referral versus symptoms that are expected to subside once a stable, integrated home within the community is provided, along with appropriate settlement services.
Learning objectives
By the end of the webinar, participants will be able to:
- describe signs warranting specialized mental health support for children vs. the need for stability and integration in post-migration
- list approaches that can be used in the family, school or community environment to help school-aged children cope with difficulties.
View a PDF of the powerpoint presentation.
Presenter Biography
Dr. Ghayda Hassan is a clinical psychologist and professor of clinical psychology at Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM). She has several research, clinical and community based national and international affiliations. She is a researcher at the SHERPA team of the CIUSSS Center-West of the island of Montreal. Her systematic reviews, research and clinical activities are centred around four main areas of clinical cultural psychology: 1) Social suffering, intercommunity relations and violent extremism 2) Intervention in family violence & cultural diversity 3) Identity, belonging and mental health of children and adolescents from ethnic/religious minorities 4) working with vulnerable immigrants and refugees. She is currently co-leading the research, training and prevention/intervention activities of the FRQSC funded RAPS team (SHERPA subteam for Research and Action on Radicalisation and Social Suffering).
Her clinical and research activities focus on the interplay of culture, identity, mental health and violence among specific studied groups. Often what determines work with a given group stems from the social realties at hand and particularly, the needs of the clinical and community milieux with which she works closely.
