Refugee Wellbeing Service

  • Migrant mental health

  • Directorate: Mental Health
  • Client Age: All Age Adult
  • Referral Criteria: GP
  • Address: The Swan Centre, Norton Street, Coventry, CV1 5FY
  • Reception hours: Monday - Friday, 9am - 5pm
  • Reception phone number: 07917 311835

Meet the Team

Current members of the team can be found below, along with their contact email addresses.

What is the Refugee Well-Being Service?

Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Partnership Trust together with local stakeholders in Coventry including public health and Coventry Refugee and Migrant Centre (CRMC) have established a mental health and well-being provision for refugee children and young people, adults and families.

 

The NHS is working initially with refugee families who are in Coventry as part of the Vulnerable peoples resettlement program (VPRS). We support families on arrival in the UK, after 3 months a well-being screening assessment is offered to all families. If required, further individual or family therapeutic support is provided using trauma-informed care principals.

 

Our service offers Direct Therapeutic Interventions; Consultation and Training for professionals working with refugees.

 

Within the team there is a range of clinicians. The clinical offer is based on the assessment and therapeutic need of the individual, be that a child, young people or adult. Interventions include:

  • One-to-one therapeutic work
  • Parent child therapeutic work
  • Family therapeutic work

 

If you are not part of the resettlement programme but wish to access some wellbeing support, please contact the Coventry and Refugee and Migrant Centres (CRMC). They offer support for any refugee, asylum seeker or migrant over the age of 18 years. https://www.covrefugee.org/

Services provided by the Refugee Well-Being Service

Family

All families arriving in the UK and settling in Coventry will be followed up by our service approximately 3 months after their arrival to check how they are getting on. These appointments, Screenings, are generally for two hours and are facilitated by up to two clinicians. This appointment is the opportunity for your whole family to think about any support they may need, especially in relation to your psychological and emotional well-being.

 

Individual Work with Children, Young People or Adults

If a referral is received by the service, you will be contacted to arrange an initial appointment. This appointment is known as comprehensive and holistic assessment, which recognises your physical, social, emotional and spiritual well-being including assessing any risks to you or others. You will be asked about things that are currently difficult for you and experiences in the past that may have been difficult or distressing. We understand that it is difficult to talk about such experiences and that it takes time to develop a trusting relationship. It will be an opportunity to discuss your hopes and wishes for your present and future. You will not be asked to speak about anything that you do not want to discuss.

 

These holistic 1:1 therapy sessions with a Clinical Psychologist, Psychological Therapist or Psychotherapist can help individuals to make sense of their experiences and things that may have happened to them or members of their family. To overcome trauma, low mood, stress, difficulties in adapting to life in the UK, grief and anxiety, as well as many other difficulties. The sessions can help you to think about planning for the future and any other services that might be able to support you.

Therapists are familiar with working with trained interpreters should this be required to help you to gain the most benefit from these appointments. Any concerns you have about interpreters can be discussed.

 

Due to the current situation with COVID19, all sessions are being facilitated currently by telephone.

 

All information discussed with the service is confidential and will only be shared with other agencies if this is necessary for example if making a referral or if there are concerns about your safety. This would always be discussed with you first, where possible.

How to access the Refugee Well-Being Service

In order to access the refugee well-being service you must have arrived in the UK under the Vulnerable Person’s Resettlement Scheme (VPRS). You can contact your GP who will gather information about your situation and based on this may complete a referral form which will be sent to the refugee well-being service. Alternatively, you may speak with a teacher at school, a member of staff at the family hub and they will be able to complete a referral form and again send this to the refugee well-being service.

 

With any of the therapies, these proposed interventions will be made clear, what the aims of the work are, the duration, mode of delivery, where meetings are held, explaining likelihood of improvement and recovery, what you can expect during the interventions, including symptoms can seem to get worse temporarily and recovery is likely if one stays engaged in the treatment.

Diagram

Training and Consultation

Our service provides a variety of training courses, for example; Level 1: introduction to mental health and wellbeing support for refugees and asylum seekers, Level 2: the therapeutic care model – trauma-informed practice with refugees and asylum seekers, Working with interpreters, Vicarious Traumatisation and Self-care.

 

We can offer tailor made training and CPD to teams that come into contact with refugees.  We also support other services by offering consultation and supervision for working with refugees and asylum seekers.

Available training:

Training

Description

Level 1: introduction to mental health and wellbeing support for refugees and asylum seekers

This is a full-day course, with a maximum of twenty attendees. It is focused on introducing the topic and helping delegates to understand needs, barriers, and how to respond from an early-intervention perspective. The target audience is allied health professionals, housing officers, interpreters, education staff, police, VCSE and community-based professionals.

Level 2: the therapeutic care model – trauma-informed practice with refugees and asylum seekers

This is a full-day course, with a maximum of twenty attendees. It can be delivered with a focus on either adults and families, or unaccompanied children. It is designed to deepen understanding of complex trauma and discover psychologically-informed approaches to provide therapeutic support. The target audience includes counsellors, psychotherapists, psychologists, GPs, health visitors, social workers, foster carers, and education inclusion staff.

Working with interpreters

Half-day skills course: maximum 20 attendees from a wide target audience including all the above groups

Vicarious Traumatisation and Self-care

Half-day skills course: maximum 20 attendees from a wide target audience including all the above groups

Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV) and Torture

This is a full-days training which addresses the needs of refugee survivors of SGBV and torture and appropriate therapeutic support. This course can be attended by any professional and/or including community-based and volunteer organisations.

 

To access any of these training courses or to find out more information please contact us. Email addresses can be found in the ‘meet the team’ section of the site.

 

Please note: due to COVID19 Training can be delivered online via Microsoft Teams or other video conferencing platforms. You can also access some training materials in our online portal, please contact us as above.

 

Consultation

The service also offers consultation to services supporting refugees and asylum seekers. To find out more information about this please contact any of the above therapists on their e-mails. Consultation aims to help you reflect on working with refugees and asylum seekers, support formulations, and think about culturally appropriate interventions and goals.