GRAND RAPIDS, Mich — Michigan is home to thousands of refugees, consistently ranking as one of the states with the most refugees. Many organizations offer programs that help the transition to the United States.
However, mental health experts in West Michigan say there's still more work to be done.
"I've definitely run into people who are experiencing a crisis for the first time," Nicole Floyd said. "They don't even know they're in mental health crises, because they've never experienced it, or they don't have that language for that. They don't have the labels for it."
Floyd is a clinician at Forest View Hospital in Grand Rapids who has experience working with patients who are refugees, many of whom have never received mental health resources.
That's one of the reasons Forest View partnered with the Kent County Health Department and Samaritas to train mental health experts on how to provide specialized treatment for refugees.
"Their goal is not to come to America, their goal, their dream is to live in the country that they were in, in a safe society," Anthony Muller said. "There's a lot of trauma and a lot of difficulties that are there, leaving everything behind. Then coming here to United States and having a whole new culture, a whole new focus."
Muller works with Samaritas to lead these trainings across the state. Last year, they trained over 500 people. In just two five-part series in Grand Rapids, Muller helped trained almost 80.
Samaritas is the largest resettlement agency in the state of Michigan. The largest populations they work with in the state include refugees from Cuba, Syria, Ukraine and Afghanistan.
"This training series is really just on the refugee experience as a whole," Muller said. "As we work with individuals that work with specific populations, then we would get much more specific into their culture and what their experience would look like."
Some refugees in West Michigan are feeling the effects of recent overseas conflict, like the Israel-Hamas war.
"It's also affecting what family members that they have here. They don't know whether or not their loved ones are safe, alive, being taken care of, or the status of them," Floyd said.
Both Floyd and Muller hope this training has lasting effects across West Michigan.
"It's hard to find a place to turn. It's hard to keep hope, even from a provider standpoint, but we are the hope for those people," Floyd said. "We are the rock. We are here to be the rock for those people in crisis."
Forest View offers mental health services of all kinds. Samaritas also offers more resources for refugees, including help finding a job and education.
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