National program to provide mental help services for immigrant/refugee children

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has awarded $4.5 million in grants to 15 community programs aimed at bringing school-connected mental health services to all children in need, with an emphasis on those from low-income immigrant and refugee families.

Realizing the substantial mental health burdens borne by these children, the umbrella program, Caring Across Communities: Addressing Mental Health Needs of Diverse Children and Youth, will offer innovative, community-based partnerships focused on getting this special population the services they need to make a healthy transition to life in the US.

According to the Foundation, children from refugee and immigrant families often face economic, social, and personal hardships that may affect their mental health and well being, but they are less likely to get the help they need. In 2002, children of immigrants totaled 13.5 million—representing more than 26 percent of low-income children under age 18 in this country.

The 15 new Caring Across Communities projects are:

• Asian American Recovery Services
  Santa Clara City, Calif.
  Population of Interest: Vietnamese

• Children's Hospital Boston
  Boston
  Population of Interest: Somali

• Children's Crisis Treatment Center for Health and Health Care in Schools
  Philadelphia
  Populations of Interest: West African (Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Ivory Coast)

• Duke University
  Durham, N.C.
  Population of Interest: Mexican

• Family Service Association of Bucks County
  Langhorne, Pa.
  Populations of Interest: Liberian, Indian, Caribbean, Mexican

• Imperial County Office of Education
  Imperial City, Calif.
  Population of Interest: Mexican

• Los Angeles Child Guidance Center
  Los Angeles
  Population of Interest: Mexican

• Los Angeles Unified School District
  Los Angeles
  Populations of Interest: Mexican, El Salvadorian, Central American, Korean

• Minneapolis Public Schools
  Minneapolis
  Populations of Interest: Somali, Liberian, Oromo, Latino

• New York University School of Medicine
  New York
  Population of Interest: Afro-Caribbean

• Portland Public Schools
  Portland, Me.
  Populations of Interest: Acholi, Arabic, Khmer, Nuer, Serbo-Croatian, Somali, Vietnamese

• Santa Cruz Community Center for Health and Health Care in Schools
  Santa Cruz, Calif.
  Population of Interest: Mexican migrant workers

• University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
  Chapel Hill, N.C.
  Population of Interest: Mexican

• Village Family Services
  Fargo, N.D.
  Populations of Interest: Somali, Sudanese, Bosnian, Liberian

• World Relief Chicago
  Chicago
  Populations of Interest: Vietnamese, Cambodian, Hmong, Somali, Bosnian, Liberian, Mexican