Posted on 6/11/2020

Mental health of refugees

Fondation Dora will support the RE-START project, an initiative from the Migrant Health Programme (MHP) at the Geneva University Hospitals (HUG). The programme hopes to improve care for refugee families suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome (PTSD). In the existing system, children are not always diagnosed early enough nor given appropriate support. Yet, whether they were directly exposed to violence themselves or if the trauma is transmitted via their parents who experienced it, they have a high risk of developing mental health challenges. The issue is even more problematic among unaccompanied minor refugees.

The goal of the project is to strengthen the medical-psychosocial framework surrounding these families and develop projects for the youth in question such as Art Therapy, Photo-language, and Capoeira, activities whose effectiveness for this population has been demonstrated.

https://www.sportanddev.org/fr/article/news/la-capoeira-une-source-etonnante-de-changement-social