Representing AUNE’s Department of Clinical Psychology, Dr. Gargi Roysircar (Professor), Lauren Weisberg (3rd yr. PsyD), Sarajane Rodgers (1st yr. PsyD), Chad Lazzari (1st yr. PsyD), and Naydine Johney (2nd yr. PsyD) will be presenting a symposium at the Winter Roundtable of Columbia University Teacher’s College the weekend of February 27th, 2016.
The title of the symposium is “Syrian Refugee Crisis: Psychologists’ Responsibility for Human Rights and Mental Health.” The symposium will address the mental health implications of the Syrian refugee crisis, with a focus on Syrian, and other Middle Eastern, and European nationalities that are being affected; the trauma of forced relocation; inadequate education and psychological resources for refugee children in receiving nations that are economically strapped; and the cultural shock of relocating to a different country whose citizens are distrusting of refugees on political, religious, linguistic, and cultural grounds.
Dr. Roysircar, as a member of the Global Trauma Leadership Coalition, along with other trauma psychologists persuaded the president of the American Psychological Association to write a letter to John Kerry, the U.S. Secretary of State, to release funding and resources for Syrian refugees.
