Better psychotherapeutic care for unaccompanied young refugees is the aim of a joint project that has been running for several years under the direction of KU psychologist Prof. Dr. Rita Rosner. Her Chair of Clinical and Biological Psychology cooperates with the Clinic for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Ulm University Hospital, its Günzburg Clinic for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy II and the German Youth Institute in Munich. The project is aptly titled: "Better Care". Researchers in the project are funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. In the context of its implementation, a tiered care approach is being developed and tested in practice, which also includes a screening with recommendations for treatment and a preventive group program as well as trauma-focused individual therapy for unaccompanied young refugees. A special feature about this project: It takes place directly in the a care setting, i.e. in practical application as part of therapy measures. The screenings and the group program are carried out in the youth welfare facilities, for which social workers have been specifically trained. The individual therapies are offered by psychotherapists in private offices.
Finding words for the unspeakable: Training interpreters in trauma therapy for refugees
Right from the outset of the project implementation, Professor Rosner's team also focused on the interpreters, who play an important role in the therapy process. The majority of them are people who only work as interpreters freelance and have hardly any psychological expertise. This means, that there is a great need to provide support to those involved in the care mandate, which also has a positive effect on the quality of therapy, explains Rita Rosner.
The first round of training has now been successfully completed. A total of 129 interpreters – mainly from Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg – took advantage of the offer. "The demand was even higher than we had expected", says Rosner. The training was organized as an online offer via Zoom. In a first step, the KU psychologists provided background knowledge from research. Participants were given an insight into trauma, flight, stress, the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder and its diagnosis. The next topic area looked into framework conditions for smooth collaboration between interpreters and therapists. Last but not least, the researchers explained the modules they have developed for trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy for adolescents. Case studies with video recordings from the online training offered by the KU for therapists working in trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy for children and adolescents also helped in getting comprehensive insights. Exercises and an ensuing discussion round helped participants deepen the gained knowledge.
The interpreters who took part in the training represented 36 different languages, with the most common languages of young refugees, namely Arabic, Kurdish, Farsi and French, being overrepresented. Around a quarter of the participants in the training course had experienced flight themselves and can therefore better empathize with the situation of young refugees from their own experience. Most of the interpreters worked in psychosocial services, in the health care sector and in asylum and migration counseling.
"The feedback on our training program was very positive", says Rita Rosner. Participants stated afterwards that they had not only increased their knowledge of post-traumatic stress disorder and trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy, but that their collaboration with the therapist had also improved as a result. "It was particularly nice to experience the gratitude and curiosity of this important group for therapy with language barriers, which is often not sufficiently trained", says Rosner. Having the opportunity to ask questions to clinical specialists "at eye level" during the training was repeatedly emphasized by participants as a great chance. One need of the interpreters became clear again and again in the discussions: talking about strategies for dealing professionally with the suffering and experiences of the patients. There is great demand and interest in further training courses. Therefore, Rita Rosner and her team are now considering continuing the offer in the Ingolstadt area. However, this requires further financial support, as the funding for this sub-project provided by the Federal Ministry of Research has expired.
For further information on the Better Care project, please visit www.ku.de/bettercare.