How did you come to be interested in working with refugees?
In the late 1980s I attended a workshop here in NSW on refugee and torture and trauma issues conducted by staff of the Danish Program for Torture and Trauma. At about this time a similar service called the Service for the Treatment and Rehabilitation of Torture and Trauma Survivors (STARTTS) was being established in NSW, which I later became involved in. I also have a master's degree in sociology so I've always been interested in social and global issues affecting humans.
What did your work with STARTTS involve?
As a Fieldwork Educator in Mental Health in the early 1990s, my OT students and I conducted programs at STARTTS which focussed on leisure groups (craft projects), job seeking skills, and social groups which afford opportunities to practice English language skills and learn how to use public transportation. We worked alongside bicultural counsellors, psychologists, social workers, psychiatrists, physiotherapists, and community development workers.
What does your current work involve?
As a lecturer in occupational therapy, I see my role as raising the awareness of students in relation to refugee issues and inspiring them to act on these issues in their capacity as citizens, students, and future occupational therapists. I provide lecture sessions in the second year of the undergraduate occupational therapy program on refugee, social and occupational justice issues.
What do you discuss in your lecture sessions?
As an integral part of the Master of Occupational Therapy curriculum (a professional masters entry program in OT) I coordinate a problem based case scenario on mental health and people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. This scenario focuses on refugees. Some of the resource sessions are:
1) Understanding refugee issues - a session provided by the Refugee Council of Australia
2) Working with interpreters
3) Role of the Transcultural Mental Health Centre
4) Role of STARTTS
5) A session with an asylum seeker - his or her personal perspective
6) Community based rehabilitation and,
7) Role of non government organizations
What does occupational therapy have to offer in this area of work?
I believe occupational therapy has a lot to offer in relation to the practicalities of resettlement. Especially advocacy and support for the activities of non-government organizations including networking with the Refugee Council of Australia which is the peak body of organizations concerned with refugees.
Here's a reference for a publication arising from an honours project I supervised:
Driver, C., & Beltran, R. O. (1998). The impact of refugee trauma on children's occupational role as
school students. Australian Occupational Therapy Journal, 45, 23-38.
This next article is a research we did with some Vietnamese refugees regarding their satisfaction with mental health services:
Silove, D., Manicavasagar, V., Beltran, R., Le, G., Nguyen, H., Phan, T.T. & Blaszczynski, A. (1997).
Satisfaction of Vietnamese patients and their families with refugee and mainstream mental health
services. Psychiatric Services - A Journal of the American Psychiatric Association, 48(8), 1064-1069.
The article below is an exploratory survey I conducted as part of my PhD. This ICD 10 category is not limited to the torture and trauma experiences of some refugees. It includes other trauma as well.
Beltran, R., Silove, D., (1999). Expert opinions about the ICD – 10 category of enduring personality change after catastrophic experience. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 40 (5), 396-403
This book below is a good resource for anyone working across cultures.
Fitzgerald, M.H., Beltran, R.O., Pennock, J., Williamson, P., Mullavey-O'Byrne, C.M. (1997).Occupational therapy, culture and mental health. Sydney: Transcultural Mental Health Centre.
Thank you Ruth for your time and insights! More information?
RUTH O. BELTRAN, BSOT MA U.P.,OTRP
lecturer
School of Occupation & Leisure Sciences, The University of Sydney
r.beltran@fhs.usyd.edu.au
Room: J203
Phone: +61 2 9351 9295
Fax: +61 2 9351 9166
