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Interactive Workshop

Islam and Muslims

Reimagining Trauma-Informed Screening for Syrian and Afghan Refugee Youth: A Disability Justice Approach

This workshop equips social workers and nonprofit practitioners with trauma-informed, culturally responsive, and disability-inclusive strategies to enhance mental health screenings for Syrian and Afghan refugee youth. By applying the Contextual Approach to Acculturative Stress (CIAS) and integrating disability justice principles, participants will build more effective, rights-based frameworks for refugee well-being.

Learning Objectives:

At the end of this session, attendees should be able to:
  1. Examine how faith-based discrimination, displacement, and acculturative stress affect the mental health of Syrian and Afghan refugee youth, highlighting barriers to culturally responsive and disability-inclusive care.
  2. Identify the limitations of standard screening tools and integrate alternative, holistic methods informed by CIAS, emphasizing somatic, familial, and religious expressions of distress.
  3. Apply disability justice principles in interactive problem-solving exercises, creating institutional action plans that merge trauma-informed approaches with cultural humility and rights-based accommodations.