Trauma and resilience in refugees – a clinical approach
with Dr. Clare Pain,Professor in the Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto (UofT); psychoanalyst; Staff psychiatrist at Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto.
September 27, 2023
Description:
Most refugees experience difficult and traumatic events in their pre migration context and their response to these trauma may vary. However, as service providers we often assume that any and all distress a refugee faces in Canada stems from the trauma that led them to flee their home country. In fact, most refugees report that settling and building a new life here is even more difficult and stressful than past events. Learning to recognize and decode these complex communications of suffering, capacity and need, is especially difficult when we have no understanding of the refugee’s geopolitical and culture context. This talk will think beyond post traumatic stress disorder to address the need to more accurately understand the causes and mitigation of individual refugee’s distress. Underpinning these ideas is the recognition that refugees are extraordinarily resilient. We will explore how to recognize this clinically and optimize and enhance service delivery as a result, noting the importance of cultural competence and cultural humility, on an individual and systemic level.
About the presenter:
Clare Pain MD, MSc., FRCPC., D.Sc (Hons) Addis Ababa University (AAU), Professor in the Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto (UofT), and psychoanalyst. Staff psychiatrist at Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto.
She is founder and senior strategist of the Toronto Addis Ababa Academic Collaboration, an educational partnership between AAU and the UofT working to strengthen educational capacity and sustainability in graduate training at AAU. In 2014 she was awarded an honorary doctorate for assisting the development of psychiatry in Ethiopia.
Her clinical focus is the assessment and treatment of individuals including refugees, who continue to suffer from the complex effects of psychological trauma. She has lectured and taught on various aspects of psychological trauma and global mental health. She has published a number of articles and three books.