World Mental Health Day
Refugee Education UK
Education for a hopeful future: we enable refugee youth to access, remain and progress in education.
Today is World Mental Health Day. While mental health is something that affects us all, there are specific issues that affect young refugees’ mental health and their ability to access and thrive through education. These could include..
This can leave young refugees' at risk of exploitation, and in prolonged situations of uncertainty and instability - stuck in ‘survival mode’, unable to rehabilitate or engage with education.?
One of the ways in which we promote and resource young people’s wellbeing and resilience at REUK is through grassroots psychosocial interventions. This includes providing holistic casework support to help young people dismantle the practical barriers to their mental health and educational progression, as well as persistent emotional support as we accompany and advocate for them throughout their educational journeys.?
Additionally, since one of the effects of trauma is isolation and loneliness, we work hard to help young people build relationships and networks where they can find support and a sense of belonging. Through the provision of educational mentoring, study groups, an orientation programme and conversation classes, we help young people to form connections in their local communities with trusted adults and peers who may share similar experiences to their own. As one of the young people we have supported said;?
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“When I come to REUK, it is like my stress is lifted from me. Normally, when I am by myself it is too much and I feel tension all the time. Talking to you every week makes me feel better and less tense. When you tell me you are proud of me, I really think about it and it makes me happy. Really, I am not sure how I would have survived last year. It was you being with me and helping me that made it different.”
As the theme of this year’s World Mental Health Day is Workplace Mental Health, we would also like to shine a light on the impact journeying with young refugees through a hostile environment can have on staff and the importance of addressing mental health in the workplace.?
High levels of vicarious trauma and burnout are experienced in our sector and working within a hostile context can lead to acute experiences of moral injury and systemic betrayal. At REUK, we understand the wellbeing of staff as intrinsically linked to the wellbeing of the young people we support. In order to support our young people effectively, we must be able to support ourselves.
As such, we consider self-care an organisational, as well as individual responsibility, promoted through the provision of regular 1-1 and group therapy sessions, wellbeing days, reflective practice time and a culture of working from a place of rest.
In caring for ourselves, we can better care for each other and continue to stand alongside, advocate for and build the resilience of young people in our communities.?