Refugees and asylum seekers who had graduated from needing mental health services called Sara Nelson last week.
The program manager at the Center for Victims of Torture, which supports people who have survived torture, said those calling wanted to restart services following ramped up Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) action in the Twin Cities that included the shooting death of Renee Good by an ICE agent. Other clients, out of fear for their own safety, changed their appointments from in-person to virtual.
Advocates say the shooting and ICE enforcement action is yet another traumatic event affecting the community, leading to feelings of anger, hopelessness and fear.
Therapist Shonda Craft, Ph.D., said her clients last week “need(ed) to expel the fact that they’d been thinking about” these violent acts, even while addressing previous concerns around their mental health.
Even people in the Twin Cities who have stayed home watching the events unfold on social media are experiencing a traumatic event, Craft said, defining it as “any event or incident that radically shakes” someone’s sense of wellbeing.
Craft, owner of a private mental health practice, is among many responding to clients’ growing needs. Larger organizations, such as M Health Fairview, responded by offering two free psychological first aid trainings this week.
Related: What is psychological first aid?
Marlee James, the CEO and owner of the Black mental health practice Reviving Roots,said programming such as a “Black in America” support group is going ahead as planned. Reviving Roots, which James explained was founded in response to the “historical trauma caused by white supremacy,” has and will continue to host educational events for clients, including the “Peace and Power” community safety series that includes deescalation and self-defense training.
The violence of this week, while traumatic, is, James said, “something we’ve experienced and continue to experience.”
“It almost feels like George Floyd times,” she added.
At the Center for Victims of Torture, measures instituted last year to support clients in response to fears around immigration enforcement are continuing, said Nelson. These include food deliveries to clients afraid to leave their homes and accompanying clients to appointments with ICE or to court.
Though providers cited fear, anger and hopelessness among the reactions of their clients, they urged clients to be in community with each other in whatever way they can, whether in-person or virtually.
“It is important to check in on your friends and your colleagues,” Craft said, “especially if they are teachers and health care providers.” Craft added that it is also important to check in with your community in totality – not just your peers in identity-based communities, but with the people close to you geographically, who live nearby or shop at the same stores.
“Being in isolation,” James said, “is not the move right now.”
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