Training Resources for Psychologists Working with LGBT Migrants and Victims of Torture

Education

• Heartland Alliance’s Rainbow Welcome Initiative
  This supports the resettlement of LGBT refugees and asylees by offering technical assistance to service providers and disseminating critical resources relevant to both resettlement staff and refugees and asylees. The Rainbow Welcome Initiative is committed to ensuring the successful integration of LGBT refugees and asylees as they establish new lives in this country and pursue new possibilities. Also see the Rainbow Response: A Practical Guide to Resettling LGBT Refugees and Asyleesopens in new window (PDF, 6KB) and the report "A Rainbow Retrospective: Reflection on Best Practices and Successes From the Field"opens in new window (PDF, 7.65MB).
  

Forensic Psychological Evaluations

• Physicians for Human Rightsopens in new window (PHR)
  PHR's Asylum Networkopens in new window is a community of hundreds of health professionals who offer pro bono forensic psychological and physical evaluations to document evidence of torture and persecution for men, women and children fleeing danger in their home countries. PHR offers forensic science training, and training to medical professionalsopens in new window who wish to learn how to do evaluations of physical and psychological claims of asylum seekers.

• Weill Cornell Center for Human Rightsopens in new window is a medical student-run human rights clinic dedicated to providing forensic medical evaluations to survivors of persecution seeking asylum in the United States.

Legal Advocacy

• Human Rights Firstopens in new window
  Human Rights First was founded in 1978 as the Lawyers Committee for International Human Rights to promote laws and policies that advance universal rights and freedoms and exists to protect and defend the dignity of each individual through respect for human rights and the rule of law.
• The Road to Safety: Strengthening Protection of LGBTI Refugees in Uganda and Kenyaopens in new window (PDF, 689KB)
  Human Rights First has identified a number of key steps to be taken to improve the situation of LGBTI refugees.
• Organization for Refuge Asylum & Migrationopens in new window (ORAM)
  ORAM is the only international organization devoted solely to advocating on behalf of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) refugees fleeing persecution due to sexual orientation or gender identity.
• People Against Suffering, Oppression and Povertyopens in new window
  PASSOP is a community-based nonprofit organization and grassroots movement that works to protect and promote the rights of all refugees, asylum seekers and immigrants in South Africa. Read about its LGBTI Refugee Support and Advocacy Projectopens in new window. (PDF, 1.26MB)

Legal Aid

• Refugee Law Projectopens in new window (RLP)
  The RLP was established in 1999 to provide legal aid to asylum seekers and refugees in Uganda.

• Heartland Alliance International initiativesopens in new window

• National Immigrant Justice Centeropens in new window (NIJC)
  Heartland Alliance's NIJC is dedicated to ensuring human rights protections and access to justice for all immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers. NIJC provides direct legal services to and advocates for these populations through policy reform, impact litigation and public education. Since its founding three decades ago, NIJC has been unique in blending individual client advocacy with broad-based systemic change. Read about their LGBT Immigrant Rights Initiativeopens in new window.

Rescue and Assistance

• Hebrew Immigrant Aid Societyopens in new window (HIAS)
  HIAS is the international migration agency of the American Jewish community. It provides rescue and refuge for persecuted and oppressed Jews around the world, and assists refugees and immigrants of all backgrounds.
• Protection in the city: some good practice in Nairobiopens in new window (PDF,346KB)
  Despite a challenging protection environment, an assistance program for LGBTI refugees in Nairobi offers examples of good practice that could be replicated in other urban settings. 
• HealthRight Internationalopens in new window (formerly Doctors of the World-USA)
  Founded in 1993, HealthRight International's Human Rights Clinic mobilizes the health sector to assist survivors of torture and abuse seeking asylum and other forms of immigration relief in the U.S.

Research

• Research Institute Without Wallsopens in new window (RIWW)
  RIWW is the only NGO in the world whose focus is training and research on the mental health needs of persons who face persecution based on sexual orientation and gender identity. RIWW Provides training and research in the area of LGBTI asylum and offers free training and mentoring to psychologists who want to learn how to do psychological evaluations for asylum seekers, including web-based training tools. 

General Resources

• Seeking sanctuary
  Psychologists are playing a vital role in helping asylum seekers convince courts that they cannot be sent back to their native countries. 

• APA's refugee mental health resource network In response to the growing humanitarian crisis of an unprecedented 63.5 million people being displaced worldwide, a pro bono initiative established by several APA divisions developed the Refugee Mental Health Resource Network to offer agencies and organizations working with refugees a comprehensive list of psychologists and other mental health professionals worldwide who are available to volunteer their services to asylum seekers, refugees, migrants and internally displaced individuals.

LGBT Specific Resources

• LGBTQ Asylum Seekers: How Clinicians Can Help (PDF, 534KB)opens in new window
  This resource considers the ways in which psychologists can help asylum seekers cope with trauma and navigate systems, and distinguishes between assessment vs. therapeutic and advocacy roles.

• Non-clinicians' judgments about asylum seekers' mental health: how do legal representatives of asylum seekers decide when to request medico-legal reports?
  Lucy Wilson-Shaw, Nancy Pistrang, Jane Herlihy, European Journal of Psycho-Traumatology
  2012

• Psychological Assessment of Torture Survivors: Essential Steps, Avoidable Errors, and Helpful Resourceopens in new window 
  Kenneth S. Pope, International Journal of Law & Psychiatry
  September-December 2012

• Responding to Victims of Torture: Clinical Issues, Professional Responsibilities and Useful Resourcesopens in new window 
  Kenneth S. Pope, Rosa E. Garcia-Peltoniemi
  This article presents clinical and related approaches to the treatment of torture victims, examines common reactions of clinicians working in this area, identifies useful resources and emphasizes the need for clinical interventions to be supplemented by research, practice and education in order to respond adequately to the prevalence of torture and the plight of its victims.

• Working with Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender & Intersex Persons in Forced Displacement: Need to Know Guidanceopens in new window
  United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
  Raises awareness of the common protection challenges that LGBTI individuals face, and the distinct risks of each group in countries of origin, in transit and in host countries.