New! ORR Video: Stories of Hope From Bhutanese Refugees: Moving From Distress to Wellness
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Mental health, or emotional wellness, and physical health are inextricably linked. For example, depression is strongly associated with chronic conditions such as diabetes, heart disease and cancer. Similarly, feelings of depression or anxiety may make it more challenging to engage in healthy behaviors such as getting proper nutrition, exercise and sleep as well as avoiding substance abuse. ORR recognizes that emotional wellness is essential to a person’s well-being, interpersonal relationships, and the ability to live a full and productive life.
ORR strives to promote emotional wellness in refugee communities by:
- Raising awareness and removing stigmas
- Conducting culturally competent mental health screenings
- Facilitating strengths-based mental health case management services
- Developing partnerships to increase access to care; and
- Promoting resiliency factors and mental health education
Refugees demonstrate exceptional resiliency by overcoming persecution, rebuilding new lives and giving back to their communities. Building on that resiliency is the cornerstone to ORR’s approach to emotional wellness. For more information on health resiliency factors, visit the SAMHSA-HRSA Center for Integrated Health Solutions .
ORR has co-sponsored the following webinars to promote emotional health and wellness among refugees. To view the webinars, click on the titles below.
- Promoting Emotional Wellness through Adjustment Support Groups
- When Helping Hurts: Self-Care Strategies for Refugee Community Leaders & Service
- Suicide Contagion: Evidence and Implications for Postvention
Visit the Health and Mental Health section of the ORR Network Resources page for other related resources.
For more information, please contact ORR’s Program Specialist for Refugee Mental Health, Parangkush (PK) Subedi. For more information on a related program, the Services to Survivors of Torture program, please contact ORR’s Project Officer, Tim Kelly.
Contact Information
Parangkush (PK) Subedi, MPH, MS
Program Specialist for Refugee Mental Health, Division of Refugee Health
Office of Refugee Resettlement
Administration for Children and Families
330 C Street SW
Washington, DC 20201
Email: parangkush.subedi@acf.hhs.gov
Phone: 202.401.5318