The Journey of the Refugee’s Mind: Understanding the Psychological Stages of Forced Migration (N/NY-TR8192)

Plenary

Essam Daod, MD
Dr. Essam Daod, Co-founder and Mental Health Director of Humanity Crew is a psychiatrist and psychotherapist who grew up in Israel in a small Arab Palestinian village in the Galilee. He specialized in child and adolescent psychiatry and graduated from psychoanalytic school. In 2015, he flew to Greece for a humanitarian rescue mission where he co-founded Humanity Crew and has been working with refugees ever since. Currently, he is an avid refugee mental health activist and researcher who has spoken in countless conferences and media outlets all over the world advocating for the importance of mental health support for refugees. In 2018, he became a World Health Organization (WHO) mental health expert team member, and a TED Fellow. Humanity Crew specializes in the provision of first response mental health support and psychological aid to refugees and people in crises, working to deploy mental health and psycho-social support to displaced populations in order to improve their well-being, to restore order in their lives, and to prevent further psychological escalation.

“Just as the refugee’s body takes a journey, so does the mind. There is no way to help and support refugees around the world without understanding and supporting the journey of their minds.” –Dr. Essam Daod, Humanity Crew’s co-founder and mental health director. More than 70 million refugees and asylum seekers are currently forcibly displaced from their homes due to civil war, ethnic cleansing, genocide, and hunger. This mass forced displacement has created a global human rights crisis and a global public mental health epidemic. Indeed, tragically, forced displacement and migration, in addition to various post-migration stressors, has been linked to high rates of trauma and stress-related mental health problems. In addition to the current mental health crisis, an inter-generational crisis of this forced displacement is emerging. Although rates of trauma- and stress-related mental health problems are elevated among refugees, only a small proportion of this population receives treatment. The lecture will focus on the journey of the refugee’s mind and the psychological stages of forced migration based on our understanding of the global public health and clinical research and intervention development, policy, and related decision-making.