Several patients wait in a nondescript room at Harris Health System\u2019s El Franco Lee Health Center. Their colorful clothing stands out in contrast\u00a0to the sterile surroundings\u2014some wear traditional attire from their home countries, while others are dressed in typical American fashion, a visible symbol of a new start in a foreign land. In the room are refugees from Myanmar (Burma), Bhutan, Iraq, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Sudan and other countries. All have come to Houston in search of a better life and all have come to this room seeking help for trauma.<\/p>\n
About 3 million refugees have been resettled in the U.S. since the Refugee Act of 1980 created standards for screening and admission. Houston, in particular, has been a safe haven since the arrival of thousands\u00a0of refugees who left Vietnam by boat beginning in\u00a0the late 1970s. Currently, refugees are fleeing their home countries at a record rate. There are 65.6 million forcibly displaced people worldwide, the \u201chighest level of displacement on record,\u201d according to UNHCR, the United Nations refugee agency.<\/p>\n
To qualify as refugees, individuals must be able to demonstrate they were \u201cpersecuted or feared persecution due to race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group,\u201d according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. As a result of the trauma they often endure, refugees suffer from mental health issues at a higher rate than the average population.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey may not necessarily have PTSD or\u00a0major depression, but they may have symptoms\u00a0of PTSD or depression that can be helped if we connect at the right time,\u201d said Sophia Banu, M.D., an assistant professor at Baylor College of Medicine and director of Harris Health System\u2019s Clinic for International Trauma Survivors.<\/p>\n
As countries worldwide seek ways to alleviate the growing mental health crisis among refugees, Banu\u2019s clinic offers help to the thousands of refugees who have settled in Houston. Inspired by her work at the Bellevue\/NYU Program for Survivors of Torture, Banu set a goal of starting a similar program in the Texas Medical Center.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the beginning, I would go to resettlement agencies to tell them about the clinic,\u201d Banu said. \u201cI also trained caseworkers in how to identify clients with mental illness\u2014\u2018if they say this, make sure you call me right away.\u2019 Slowly but surely, the word spread, and it really started picking up in December 2013.\u201d<\/p>\n
The clinic treats patients from all over the world. Wali, 46, who declined to share his last name, arrived in the U.S. from Afghanistan in November 2015. After he and his wife reported physical symptoms to their primary care doctors, including headaches and high blood pressure, they were referred to Banu\u2019s clinic.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn Houston, the only person that I am sharing my problems with, telling what\u2019s in my head, is Dr. Banu,\u201d Wali said. \u201cShe\u2019s listening, she\u2019s evaluating properly and professionally, and she\u2019s giving me good advice.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wali, his wife and four children, who range in age from 15 to 21, moved to the U.S. \u201cfor more security.\u201d In Afghanistan, Wali\u2019s daughter missed years of school because the Taliban would not allow girls to be educated, he said. One of the striking things he first noticed about the U.S. was people walking or driving at night.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe could drive during the night in Afghanistan, but not safely or alone,\u201d Wali said. \u201cIf I had to go, I would take other people. Even here, when I go somewhere, I think alone is not good.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now all of his children attend school. He no longer fears they will be kidnapped or attacked. His daughter, once denied an education, now dreams of working in medicine. Still, though grateful for his children\u2019s successes, Wali misses aspects of his former life.<\/p>\n
\u201cI worked for 10 years as a civil engineer. I had a good life, good income,\u201d said Wali, who now works in a construction-related job. \u201cThe life I had over there compared to here is not the same. But of course, if security is not good, you could have a roomful of food but you will not be safe.\u201d<\/p>\n
Banu said that despite the trauma many refugees experienced, feeling homesick is not uncommon.<\/p>\n
Life is so different in the U.S. that it can be overwhelming. Another patient, Aw Meh, a refugee from Burma, spent years in the jungle, surviving on food she grew, even giving birth to one of her children there. When she arrived in the U.S., she said she didn\u2019t know how to use a stove.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe would say that, at times, life in the jungle was better because she could grow her food. She didn\u2019t have to figure out electricity,\u201d Banu said, as Meh nodded in confirmation. \u201cHere you are in the city, and you have everything, but if you don\u2019t know how to use it or you don\u2019t know how to get it, it doesn\u2019t help.\u201d<\/p>\n
Many patients who seek help at the clinic report difficulty navigating their new lives in Houston\u2014both emotionally and physically. One of the biggest challenges patients face is lack of transportation. Banu said the bus stop in front of El Franco Lee Health Center, as well as its proximity to neighborhoods where refugees are settled, were key factors in choosing it as a home base.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought it would be easier than Ben Taub, which is difficult to get to,\u201d Banu said. \u201cBut if they don\u2019t know how to get on the bus … that\u2019s a struggle we deal with constantly. We\u2019re here, there are patients who need us, but there is not transportation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite obstacles, the patients do their best to make it to the clinic. Some will get a neighbor or friend to drop them off, Banu said. For others, she asks caseworkers to teach them to use the METRO Houston system.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are here because they want to survive. For a majority, if you teach them how to get on the METRO, they will manage,\u201d Banu said. \u201cThey have survived so much, they would easily learn to get on a bus.\u201d<\/p>\n
That will to survive is something Banu sensed among her own family members. After China invaded Tibet in 1950, her Tibetan Muslim family, \u201cwas a minority within a minority,\u201d Banu said. They were told to renounce their religion or leave. Fearing for their safety, they fled to India.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s in me, part of what my parents and grandparents had to go through,\u201d Banu said. \u201cMaybe I was destined to work with refugees.\u201d<\/p>\n
Soon Banu will further expand that work by seeing patients at Alliance for Multicultural Community Services, a nonprofit located on Hillcroft Avenue.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey come to the agency for other services, whether to get food stamps or education and employment services, ESL classes,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen they come there, I can see them. They don\u2019t have to worry about someone having to take them to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alliance already refers a large portion of the clinic\u2019s patients, including Laura Jacob, a pseudonym for a woman who requested that her real name not be used. Jacob moved to Houston from Iraq in November 2014. She worked on a project with the United States Agency for International Development that made her eligible for a Special Immigrant Visa. She said when she arrived in the U.S. she was \u201ctotally broken down.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBeside all that I have seen throughout the last\u00a015 years in my country, the war and all the troubles, I also lost my mother, I lost my house, I lost everything,\u201d Jacob said. \u201cI was attacked, I was threatened, I was scared, whatever you can imagine.\u201d<\/p>\n
The first time she visited Banu, Jacob said she spent the appointment crying while Banu listened.<\/p>\n
\u201cImagine you are somewhere you don\u2019t know anything about and you have nobody,\u201d Jacob said, her voice breaking. \u201cShe helped me a lot, and thank God I made it. When you speak to someone and they listen to you and they advise you, it helps.\u201d<\/p>\n
Though some patients require medication, Banu said often what a patient really needs is someone to listen\u2014to make them feel validated.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor us to say, \u2018That must have been so hard\u00a0for you\u2014how did you manage, what did you do?\u2019 Empowering them, giving them a sense of control,\u201d Banu said. \u201cThat is what helps them to do the things they need to do, and to move forward.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Several patients wait in a nondescript room at Harris Health System\u2019s El Franco Lee Health Center. Their colorful clothing stands out in contrast\u00a0to the sterile surroundings\u2014some wear traditional attire from their home countries, while others are dressed in typical American fashion, a visible symbol of a new start in a foreign land. In the room […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10440,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2078,227,527,2077,217],"yoast_head":"\n