Honeymoon Period: Settlement Workers

Cultural Sensitivity Dept: A two-day session in Ottawa, led by the Toronto-based Hong Fook Mental Health Association, is training 25 settlement workers on how to identify new Canadians who may be in crisis, according to CBC. "They uproot themselves from their comfort zone whereby they grew up and what not. They are cut off from their extended family," the group's executive director, Raymond Chung, said. "Coming here and there are no friends and no other support that they can count on." 'We had better have resources in place to help and have empathy' Kelly Hendriks, social worker More attention should be paid to the mental health of immigrants, and greater cultural sensitivity used in assessing it, two experts in the field say. Leaving one's home for a new country can take a toll on people's mental state, and the resulting despair sometimes emerges only after the honeymoon period following their immigration, the association says. As reported in the news.
@t hong fook, mental health association