Mental health support group trains refugees to cope with stress and support their community

Over seven weeks in June and July of 2021, a group of eight refugee moms met each week at Franklin Junior High School to discuss anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, the brain, domestic violence, and similar topics. Ethnic Minorities of Burma Advocacy and Resource Center’s (EMBARC) mental health support group focused on the importance of mental health and prepared participants to bring mental health information to others in their community.

The mental health support group provided counselling for participants, but it also trained participants to address mental health issues in the refugee and immigrant community. Jennifer Haidar, a licensed clinical social worker at Grapevine Clinical and New Hope Personal Growth Center, led the group sessions.

Jennifer Haidar and Abigail Sui lead EMBARC’s mental health support group

“During every group, I wanted participants to not only benefit from the group therapy process, but also to learn valuable information about mental health and coping strategies to share with others in the community,” Haidar said. “In this way, the group also functioned a little like a train-the-trainer model. ... Any time you’re in therapy you learn something, and you can go share it with someone else. I wanted it to be very applicable for them.”

Prior to becoming a clinical social worker, Haidar worked as a teacher in Des Moines Public Schools for fourteen years leading English Language Learner classes. She worked with many people from the Burma community.

“I always loved working with immigrant communities, kids, and families,” she recalled.

Haidar first got to know EMBARC’s Parent Navigator program through an EMBARC internship as she studied for her Masters of Social Work degree.

“Before my internship was over, I spoke to EMBARC about possible partnerships in the future and offering group therapy for the refugee community. I wanted to continue to support this important community,” Haidar said.

EMBARC’s parent navigators composed the mental health support group, which met for ninety minutes each week for seven weeks. Topics ranged from understanding mental health and the therapy process to coping strategies for managing anxiety and stress.

Each meeting began with a psychological education topic, like how the brain works, trauma, anxiety, or depression. In an early activity, Haidar had the parent navigators stand up if they thought a given topic was a reason for therapy.

“They were pretty shocked,” Haidar said. “They had no idea people went to therapy for pretty every-day things like moving to a new community or becoming a mother.”

The second half of each meeting focused on practical coping skills and other strategies to manage anxiety and depression.

“Either we were practicing a coping skill, or we were practicing ways to reframe negative thinking—some kind of practical hands-on experience to practice what we were learning,” she said.

Haidar emphasized the train-the trainer model of the group, in which community members are taught information and skills to bring to their community. Group members trained to support the refugee and immigrant community.

“In addition to group therapy, I felt it was also really training them how to talk to their community circles and other moms and others in their community about mental health and about mental health services.” Haidar said.

The mental health support group also covered difficult topics, such as domestic violence and substance abuse.

“i saw how these topics can lay heavy on many refugee’s minds, whether they have been directly or indirectly affected. It is important we find more ways to help educate our refugee communities about these issues, and provide culturally and linguistically appropriate resources and services. We have a long way to go,” Haidar said.

Haidar surveyed the parent navigators in the first and last sessions. Early on, she found a lack of knowledge about mental health. After the class, 100% of participants said they had a better understanding of mental health and 100% said they had learned coping skills that they would use to deal with stress. 88% reported that they planned to share their newfound knowledge with others in their communities.

Members of the group echoed Haidar’s enthusiasm. One parent navigator said “After the group, I learned I can put my stress in an imaginary box, use my happy place and tapping. I can also use deep breathing and drawing. I can share with others and also tell others how to help themselves."

Another navigator said, “I learned about different kinds of abuse, especially emotional and economic abuse. I can share with friends who may also not know."

Many immigrants misunderstand mental health, Haidar said.

“I wanted them to understand that we all have mental health, and our mental health can be strong or weak, just like our physical bodies. I wanted them to understand mental health is on a continuum and people can be on different points of that continuum of health during different times in their lives, depending on what is happening to them. People that have mental health concerns or challenges are not crazy,” Haidar said.

Through participating in the mental health support group, these new trainers learned that therapy can help everyone.

EMBARC plans more mental health support groups in the future, and is also creating an educational video series to cover many of the topics Haidar and the parent navigators discussed. Videos will allow community members to learn about these crucial topics even if they are uncomfortable attending support group sessions.

“The group was an honor to be part of. I enjoyed it, and it’s such a great group of people to work with,” Haidar said.