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As part of this year’s World Mental Health Day, the U.S. Institute of Peace and the U.S. Department of State’s Office of International Religious Freedom’s Strategic Religious Engagement Unit hosted a discussion on religion, MHPSS and migration. The conversation drew on findings from USIP’s initiative on Religious and Psychosocial Support for Displaced Trauma Survivors, which has identified specific ways in which faith-sensitive mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) can increase the effectiveness of trauma healing interventions for migrants and refugees. Panelists offered insight on actions that can be implemented in current efforts to assist migrants from highly religious contexts and to improve the quality of and accessibility to MHPSS to facilitate integration and reconciliation.

Palwasha Kakar, opening remarks  Interim Director, Religion and Inclusive Societies, U.S. Institute of Peace

Dan Nadel, opening remarks Senior Department Official, Office of International Religious Freedom, U.S. Department of State 

Dr. Alastair Ager Director, Institute of Global Health and Development, Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Dr. Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh Principal Investigator, Refugee Hosts; Professor of Migration and Refugee Studies, University College London

Dr. Wilson López López  Professor, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana 

Cristal Palacios  Founder and Director, Psicodiáspora Camilo Ramirez Parra   Country Director, HIAS Colombia Nida Ansari, moderator Policy Advisor, Strategic Religious Engagement, U.S. Department of State 

Andres Martinez Garcia, moderator  Program Manager, Religion and Inclusive Societies, U.S. Institute of Peace

Jerry White, closing remarks  Award-Winning Humanitarian Activist and Professor of Practice, University of Virginia 

For more information about this event, please visit: https://www.usip.org/events/incorporating-religious-sensitivity-trauma-healing-displaced-persons