PROTECTING THE PSYCHOSOCIAL WELLBEING OF REFUGEE YOUTH

 PROTECTING THE PSYCHOSOCIAL WELLBEING OF REFUGEE YOUTH

There are currently 7,178 registered refugee ‘youths’ between the age 13 to 18, making up 9% of the refugee population. For the purposes of this paper, refugee youth were seen as all those between the ages of 13-18 and of Chin, Rohingya, Afghan, Somali and Sri Lankan origin. This amounts to 4724 individuals. The majority of this sample reside within the Klang Valley.

The paper sought ways in which to improve the psychosocial wellbeing of refugee youth. The chosen topics of investigation are areas in which proper assistance could boost the components that make up an individual’s psychosocial wellbeing. These components are explained below. 

Psychosocial wellbeing refers to an individual’s psychological development and condition that results from their interaction with their social environment.

To maintain positive psychosocial wellbeing, one must rely on your resources of:

Human capacity – individuals’ physical and mental strengths and values – knowledge, capacity and skills.

Social ecology – social connections and support systems, cohesive relationships and social equilibriums.

Culture and Values – maintenance of cultural norms and values within a society - that influence the individual and social aspects of daily life.

Also, one must have a series of external factors in place, to provide stability and security. Proper psychological development, through interaction with the social environment, can then take place:

External factors:

The maintenance of:

e.g. livelihood + shelter + physical security  

Areas of study thus became:

• HEALTH – PHYSICAL + MENTAL

• LIVELIHOOD

• LEGAL/SECURITY

• SGBV

• SOCIAL SPACES

PHYSICAL HEALTH:

Overview of youth situation:

- Good condition (relative) but concerns over:

• Hygiene issues
•   SRH awareness
•   Substance abuse

Problems of assistance:

• Youngsters unable to access health services
• Lack of understanding of physical health issues
• Lack of information on services
• Stigma over SRH

Recommendations:

• Greater focus on SRH education
• Specific assessments of youth popn.
• Hygiene education
• Info leaflets in youth-frequented locations

MENTAL HEALTH:

Overview of youth situation:

• Official statistics –

      little suggestion of poor mental health/psychological disorders

• Interviews with youth, in 1-on-1, focus groups, CBPs reveal youth population with pressing anxieties and resultant behavioural symptoms. UNHCR staff also suggest a greater existence of psychological distress than statistics suggest.

Added mental pressures on youth:

• Increasing responsibility within the family
• Body changes
• Unwelcoming peer environment
• Lack of safe leisure space
• Substance abuse

  General concerns:

• Resettlement, Traumas, Loneliness, Idleness

Problems of assistance:

• Little concept of mental health
• Greater stigma amongst youth
• Community centres lack will+expertise to refer/handle youth
• Youths access community centres less
• Access to BID limited
• Articulation between counsellor to youth
• Trust between counsellor to youth
• Counselling largely a basic “reality check”
• Few referrals for psychotherapy/psychiatry
• Lack of child-training amongst counsellors

Recommendations:

• BID drop-in days
• Psychosocial education classes
• Capacity training amongst CBOs
• Psychohealth services to reflect refugee culture
• Peer counsellors
• Post-detention psychological assessments
• Greater access to psychotherapy or other cathartic therapies
• ACTS kids-only days
• UNHCR psychological profiling of youth population

LIVELIHOOD:

Dangers faced at work:

• Exploitative employers
• Informing to authorities
• Verbal and physical abuse
• Physical injury

Motivations toward job-seeking:

• Financial pressures on family
• Family expectations of youth
• UASCs self-supporting or supporting host
• Simply seeking activity

Problems of assistance:

• Dilemma of education vs employment
• No guarantees of jobs after training
• Youths less employable
• Youths display less realistic expectations

Recommendations:

• Livelihood-youth programmes designed to provide:
• Education in the nature of refugee employment in Malaysia, including the dangers faced and appropriate handling methods.
• Realistic expectations of employment
• Understanding that they may be in Malaysia for long-term

LEGAL/SECURITY

Overview of youth situation:

Major causes of detention:

• Begging
• Theft, gang fights, gang robberies, drug offences, working in gaming centres
• Immigration offences

Major threats to youth:

• Job abuses - Exploitative employers, Informing to authorities, verbal and physical abuse, physical injury

However, numbers of youth in detention and those reporting crimes are low. Reasons for this include:

• Police leniency
• Failure to report arrest/detention
• Lack of will to inform OPI on crimes against self

Problems of assistance:

• Poor statistical understanding of crime problem
• Expectations of release held by youth
• Standardised debrief
• Debriefs not given
• Youths unable to reach OPI to report crimes
• Youths see OPI as powerless

Recommendations:

• OPI with CDU – working with communities:
• Highlight youth crimes and devise strategies with CBOs to prevent them
• Reiterate importance of informing to OPI
• Disseminate info on best practice for youth when arrested/detained
• Statistics system  - allowing user to breakdown by age, type of crime, community, length of detention etc
• Youth-oriented debrief including:

   - Psychological assessment

      - Different approach 

SGBV

Overview of youth situation:

• 10.1% of UNHCR-reported victims in 2009 were youth – (22 cases)
• Mostly DOVI

Reasons for under-reporting amongst youth:

• Fear reactions of peers
• Need assistance to contact authorities
• Less awareness of SGBV
• Being a witness not recognised as SGBV
• Communities not always supportive
• Parents want them to stay in marriage
• Youth wives especially fear life after marriage

   Problems of assistance: 

• Lack of reporting of SGBV
• Not all UNHCR staff trained to spot SGBV

Medical assistance - problems

• Currently only ACTS offering medical assistance to SGBV survivors
• There is no SOP on how to manage the SGBV cases in the clinic
• Lack of awareness on SGBV issues among the front line staff

Counselling - problems

• Only one partner (WAO) offers counselling services – only for female SGBV survivors.
• Professional SGBV counselling for male survivors is not in place.
• Lack of awareness on SGBV among interpreters.
• Major problem – victims often do not see the point of counselling

Shelter programme - problems

• Shelter home programme not available for male SGBV survivors.
• Highly dependent on the sole partner.
• Turn over of staff in the partner organisation (during the reporting months) has affected the programme.
• 
  

Prevention: Awareness/training on SGBV - problems

• Lack of partners skilled in conducting community-based awareness programmes on SGBV.
• Need targeted awareness programme focusing on SGBV incidents that are reported in Malaysia e.g. domestic violence and children abuse/sexual abuse.
• Limited funding available to support SGBV awareness programmes.
• Difficult to devise peer-training schemes, because of differing SGBV concerns amongst different communities.

Recommendations:

• Increase formal education amongst girls
• Introduce gender education in to refugee education – at all age levels
• Create greater formal community structures amongst Rohingya

SOCIAL SPACES

Overview of youth situation:

• Often overlooked problem for youth
• Creates:
• Loneliness + lack of peer interaction
• Idleness – harmful behaviour
• Lack of peer support
• Weaker community ties

Little work from UNHCR in this area. A new pilot project has been started within CDU.

Recommendations:

• Create new social spaces:
• Community lead
• 1 adult staff in attendance – trained
• Well publicised within communities
• Emphasis on leisure + individual freedom
• Youth only
• Maximum inclusivity, open all hours