Working Alongside Refugees in Mental Health

Working Alongside Refugees in Mental Health (WARM) seeks to build and foster a sustainable community of mental health practitioners to provide linguistically appropriate, culturally congruent, evidence-based psychological services to forced migrants throughout Alaska.

Alaska is home to many forced migrants from around the globe. In 2021 alone, Refugee Assistance and Immigration Services (RAIS), our state's sole refugee resettlement center, provided services to 460 refugees from more than 25 countries across the state. Many additional forced migrants, including asylum-seekers and refugees who resettled years prior, also live here. There is great need for mental health services and yet few mental health practitioners are trained to meet the unique needs of forced migrants.

Through WARM, we aim to create a sustainable peer support network of mental health practitioners who feel prepared to work with forced migrants to address mental health issues throughout the state.