Providing Trauma-Informed Mental Health Care to Unaccompanied Immigrant Children and Asylum-Seeking Families in the United States

Live Online Webinar

Wednesday, January 26, (English) and Thursday, January 27, (Spanish) 2022
9:00am–12:00pm ET

NYSED and ASWB/ACE approved for 3 CE contact hours

Unaccompanied Immigrant Children (UIC) are children who cross the border without inspection - undocumented - while being either by themselves or with someone other than their biological parents. Both UICs and asylum-seeking families (family units) flee to the US seeking refuge for similar reasons, which often include escaping life-threatening and targeted violence in their home-country. 

Members of these groups, regardless of age, have typically endured several life-altering traumatic events before migrating to the US. In addition to that, those who survive the harsh journey to and into the US, and after being apprehended near the border are allowed to remain in the US while their immigration situation is resolved (this is, while it is decided whether they will be deported or allowed to reside in the US), face very particular challenges.

Mental health, medical, and legal professionals can make a substantial difference and positively impact the lives of this incredibly resilient population. To tend to their particular needs in an effective and ethical way, services must be provided through a trauma-informed perspective, one that takes into consideration their unique experiences: from pre-migration to their day-to-day lives in the US. 

With case examples throughout the presentation, this live online webinar will help participants understand the different stages of the migration experience of UICs and asylum-seeking family units, as well as their specific needs (including legal, medical, mental health, and concrete). The webinar will provide a framework to understand and work with trauma in general, and will specifically focus on how Terra Firma, an award-winning mental-health-medical-legal partnership specifically designed to work with this population, provides trauma-informed services. An in-depth look at mental health services will be provided.

The webinar will also include an overview of how to prepare psychological evaluations to support this groups’ immigration cases.

As a result of attending this webinar, participants will:

1. Understand the experiences of unaccompanied immigrant children (UICs) and asylum-seeking families: from the experiences that lead them to flee their home countries, to their experiences during the journey to the US, being apprehended after crossing the border, and once they are released from detention and into their new life/community.   
2. Learn how to identify UICs and asylum-seeking families, as well as their psychosocial stressors, challenges, and needs, including legal, medical, mental health, and concrete.
   
3. Understand the complexity of trauma sources and their manifestation in this population. Deepen knowledge about providing trauma-informed mental health services in general, and strategies/interventions tailored to UICs and asylum-seeking families.
   
4. Understand the important role mental health and medical professionals can play in supporting UIC’s and family units’ resettlement in the community, and in their process of seeking legal status (immigration relief). 
   
5. Learn about the benefits of mental health-medical-legal partnerships when working with this population, and how our program, Terra Firma, has addressed this population’s ever-increasing needs. 
   
6. Learn about considerations, specific guidelines, and best practices when evaluating for/providing documentation in support of immigration relief cases.
   

Brenda Punsky, LCSW, LLM

Brenda Punsky, LCSW, LLM, is the Advocacy Director and a senior-level psychotherapist at Terra Firma, a unique mental health-medical-legal partnership (embedded in Montefiore Hospital’s Bronx Health Collective) that provides trauma-informed services specifically tailored to unaccompanied immigrant youth and asylum-seeking families.

Brenda provides trauma-informed individual, family, and group psychotherapy services, and specializes in traumatic stress, complex trauma, attachment, family-systems therapy, and acculturation. Her expertise includes conducting psychological evaluations and writing affidavits in support of patients' asylum and other immigration cases; and training medical, legal, and mental health professionals on best practices when working with unaccompanied immigrant youth and asylum-seeking families.

Brenda’s experience working with families separated at the border under the Zero Tolerance policy has been published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Child & Adolescent Trauma, and she has also collaborated with the ACLU’s litigation by conducting psychological evaluations of asylum-seekers stranded at the border under the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) in Matamoros, Mexico.

In addition to her MSW degree from Silver School of Social Work, Brenda holds law degrees from both NYU School of Law, and Universidad Iberoamericana (Mexico), and worked as a human rights attorney for several years before becoming a social worker. Brenda was honored with NYU’s Global Social Work Award for her outstanding international social justice work and studies. She is also a mediator certified by the New York Peace Institute.

To register for this seminar, please log in to our Online Registration Portal and select this event from the "All Events & Programs" tab, under the "Conferences and Events" section.

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General Admission: $60.00

If after registering, you determine that you can no longer attend this event, The Office of Global and Lifelong Learning will issue refunds on the following basis:

• Refund requests made on or before January 19, 2022 (by midnight): full refund
• Refund requests made on or before January 24, 2022 (by midnight): 50% refund
• Refund requests made on or after  January 25, 2022: no refund

If this event is cancelled, all registrants will be fully reimbursed. To withdraw from and be reimbursed for this event, please complete the event withdrawal form.

NYSED and ASWB/ACE approved for 3 Continuing Education Contact Hours.

55 jurisdictions accept ACE-approved provider CE contact hours. ACE is not an approved Continuing Education provider in the states of New York (though NYU Silver is NYSED CE approved in NYS) and West Virginia, unless the event is outside of West VA. ACE only approves individual courses in New Jersey, though NYU Silver is CSWE-accredited and therefore accepted for licensed NJ professionals. Here is a full list of statutes related to social work CE.

Special Accommodations:
Students requiring accommodations have the opportunity to make these known upon registering or by writing to silver.continuingeducation@nyu.edu.

Addressing Grievances:
For information on our grievance and complaint procedures, contact 212.998.9099 or silver.continuingeducation@nyu.edu.

NYU Silver School of Social Work
Office of Global and Lifelong Learning
1 Washington Square North, G08
New York, NY 10003

Email: silver.continuingeducation@nyu.edu
Phone: 212.998.5973
Fax: 212.995.4497