Top header image: School of Social Work doctoral candidate Will Carlson helped create an online healing network in Malaysia.
UMN team delivers trauma training and support for Malaysian refugees
SSW doctoral candidate and team create online healing network in Malaysia
Malaysia is the largest recipient of refugees in Southeast Asia, with over 300,000 refugees currently striving to create a home for their families throughout the country. Many of these communities have significant trauma histories and related mental health needs but rely on a stressed service system of government health agencies and NGOs for needed services. During the summer of 2022, our UMN team began hearing about the growing needs at the nexus between refugee newcomers’ needs for services that target psychological trauma and providers’ needs for accessible advanced training in the assessment and treatment of posttraumatic stress.
Dr. Mahinder Kaur, a licensed psychologist living in Saint Paul with deep connections to many mental health providers and organizations throughout her native Malaysia, originated this work. Dr. Kaur took it upon herself to build a partnership with Minnesota experts to meet the growing needs she kept hearing about. Dr. Patricia Shannon, an associate professor at the School of Social Work, accepted the invitation to collaborate and brought two colleagues along with her, Dr. Christopher Mehus, an associate research professor with the Department of Family Social Science, and me, a doctoral candidate within the School of Social Work [SSW]. Based on our combination of expertise and experience with treating multiple incident posttraumatic stress and teaching graduate students and clinical trainees, we worked with Dr. Kaur to develop a live online training focused on the evidence-based treatment of psychological trauma for licensed providers working with refugees. We launched the training in early 2023 in partnership with the Center for Practice Transformation, and with support from the UMN Global Signature Grant and International Trauma Treatment Education Fund.
During the first cohort, which occurred over Zoom from 6 to 9 p.m. in Minnesota and 7 to 10 a.m. throughout Malaysia, we worked closely with participants to adapt weekly course content to their professional contexts, prior training, and the specific communities they serve throughout the 10-week course. Using feedback from the first cohort and the subsequent consultation sessions that followed participants as they used what they had learned in their practice, we launched the second cohort in January 2024. Each time, we provided six months of ongoing consultation and follow-up discussion about specific barriers and cultural factors related to implementation after the course concluded. The long-term goal was to work ourselves out of a role by developing training capacity throughout Malaysia that can eventually meet the educational needs of providers working throughout the region. The first step was training providers to treat. The second was training them to train.
Five-day cohort on the final day. Photo by Anisah Johan.
Participants show henna designs from a self-care activity and exchange bracelets made by clients with whom they have worked. Photo by Anisah Johan.
To this end, with support from the UMN Global Engagement Grant and the International Trauma Treatment Education Fund, the team collaborated with former participants to develop a two-part, in-person workshop. This next phase began this past August with an in-person workshop in Petaling Jaya, Malaysia, where we were hosted by the Malaysian Mental Health Association. From August 18th to the 20th, we worked with 20 past participants, troubleshooting and consulting on specific barriers to using materials in treatment, and cultural factors that influenced implementation. The final two days of the five-day workshop were spent working with a smaller subset of 14 participants who were identified as candidates to become regional trainers for future cohorts based on having: 1.) more experience using the material in their practice, 2.) a clear command of the material, and 3.) interest and/or experience training. In addition to meeting our training goals, we enjoyed the opportunity to meet with providers with whom we’d developed close collaborative relationships over hours of regular video chats during the prior 20 months. We shared challenges and successes, notes and advice from the field, and delicious local meals. Perhaps most importantly, the workshop created an opportunity for providers working across seven of Malaysia’s 13 states, often in isolation, to connect, support one another, and fortify their relationships with others who are doing the same difficult and rewarding work. As Dr. Andrew Mohanraj, the president of the Malaysian Mental Health Association put it in his welcome address, “we are all in this journey together and it’s good to know a fellow traveler.”
I am pleased to report that cohort 3 will begin in just a few weeks. This time, four former trainees are joining and will be leading a little over half of the didactic content with support and feedback from the UMN team, as they hone their skills and learn to train others. The success of the workshop and this upcoming training can contribute meaningful capacity to local expertise among refugee mental health providers in Malaysia, and promote the accessible dissemination of evidenced-based, culturally adapted treatments for healing psychological trauma. As I conclude my doctoral candidacy at UMN during a period of much stress and distraction within academia, this project serves as a hopeful reminder of the power of university-community partnerships, the shared humanity found in promoting healing and recovery, and the potency of service-oriented collaboration.
Will Carlson is a PhD candidate in the School of Social Work. He is expected to graduate in May.