What is the Mental Health Collaborative?
Girasol brings together mental health professionals for trainings on writing letters of support and serving as expert witnesses for immigration relief cases. The aim of this project is to create a network of trained professionals able to provide expertise for the cases of individuals and families seeking asylum, U visas, and T visas.
Girasol created the Mental Health Collaborative to address the current systemic gap in services for immigrants who are navigating the U.S. immigration system. For many immigrants who are survivors of violence serious enough to flee their home countries, trauma histories and resulting mental health needs are inadequately evaluated, considered, and represented in the legal process.
Mental health professionals can make critical contributions to legal cases by evaluating individuals and writing letters of support that help immigration courts better understand their case. However, these services are often costly and inaccessible to immigrants, and there is no coordinated systems-level approach to integrating legal and mental health services. As a result, a disproportionate number of migrants with both serious trauma and credible fears of returning to their country of origin are denied asylum, detained, and sent back into life-endangering situations. We aim to change that.
Through our Mental Health Collaborative, we…
Girasol created the Mental Health Collaborative to address the current systemic gap in services for immigrants who are navigating the U.S. immigration system. For many immigrants who are survivors of violence serious enough to flee their home countries, trauma histories and resulting mental health needs are inadequately evaluated, considered, and represented in the legal process.
Mental health professionals can make critical contributions to legal cases by evaluating individuals and writing letters of support that help immigration courts better understand their case. However, these services are often costly and inaccessible to immigrants, and there is no coordinated systems-level approach to integrating legal and mental health services. As a result, a disproportionate number of migrants with both serious trauma and credible fears of returning to their country of origin are denied asylum, detained, and sent back into life-endangering situations. We aim to change that.
Through our Mental Health Collaborative, we…
- train qualified mental health professionals to contribute to immigration cases by teaching them to use their existing skills as clinicians to evaluate individuals and write letters of support.
- build a network of Collaborative Professionals who are ready to help us with immigration cases.
- coordinate cases for immigrant-serving legal organizations in Texas whose clients would benefit from but do not otherwise have access to evaluative mental health services. We have developed and coordinate a streamlined process through which the legal team and mental health professionals work together to adequately represent mental health history and needs.
Become a Collaborative Professional
We train Collaborative Professionals to understand the aspects of the legal process and immigration experience necessary to conduct an evaluation, write a testimonial letter, and provide expert opinion. In addition, the interview processes required by the asylum system can be psychologically retraumatizing to asylees. We provide the knowledge, skills, and support for immigrant-serving professionals to reduce harm and support the mental health of our clients while working within systems that can be complex and cumbersome.
Licensed mental health professionals who are interested in supporting our immigrant community are encouraged to join the Mental Health Collaborative. Graduate and undergraduate students in social work and mental health fields who are pre-licensure can also become Collaborative Professionals. It is a great way to prepare for your career, and once you obtain licensure you can take on cases.
To become a Collaborative Professional, the first step is to participate in our training, Conducting Tele-Mental Health Assessments.
Licensed mental health professionals who are interested in supporting our immigrant community are encouraged to join the Mental Health Collaborative. Graduate and undergraduate students in social work and mental health fields who are pre-licensure can also become Collaborative Professionals. It is a great way to prepare for your career, and once you obtain licensure you can take on cases.
To become a Collaborative Professional, the first step is to participate in our training, Conducting Tele-Mental Health Assessments.
Support the Mental Health Collaborative
We appreciate your interest in supporting the Mental Health Collaborative. The most important ways you can support are work are through monetary donations and by sharing our work with others. Your support goes toward:
- Case Coordination - While the resources required vary by case, it costs an average of $600 to coordinate each case. Collaborative professionals are paid a small fee of $300 for their services, an important part of growing and sustaining this initiative. In addition, each case requires anywhere from two to over ten hours of staff time to coordinate the collaboration between interdisciplinary professionals.
- Growing our network of Collaborative Professionals - Donations also go toward the resources required to develop our curriculum and facilitate trainings. We envision living in a society where there is a nationwide network of mental health professionals who have the tools they need to support immigrants navigate challenges and cultivate wellbeing.
Thank you to our Mental Health Collaborative partners and funders
|
|
|
If you are interested in being on an email list to attend a training in preparation for completing mental health assessments in immigration cases, sign up here:
Other Opportunities to Get Involved
Outside of our mental health collaborative, we have several different ways that you can join Girasol's immigration advocacy work. Click here to see a list of our current opportunities.
