Objectives:
To outline some of the impacts of forced migration and displacement
To disrupt cis-heteronormative mental healthcare practices by centering the voices of LGBTQ+ refugees as ‘owning the margins’
To provide a caring framework for service providers to work with LGBTQ+ refugees
Abstract:
Utilizing a narrative therapy approach, this presentation will present trauma, displacement, pre- and post-resettlement stresses as multiple and interlocking social determinants of health that define the mental health of LGBTQ+ refugees. These include intense refugee claim processes, being new to Canada, racism, transphobia, homophobia, stigma around names and language accents, poverty; lack of access to safer housing, employment and healthcare, and social isolation intensified by the COVID pandemic. Accessing mainstream cis-heteronormative mental health systems often leads to more violence. Still, LGBTQ+ refugees prevail, by co-creating spaces of collective care and healing. This session will be based on the stories of two LGBTQ+ refugees and a frontline worker with lived experience of trauma and displacement. The presentation will have four segments: 1) contextualizing LGBTQ+ forced migration within colonial and neocolonial contexts, 2) personal narratives of navigating the current systems and practices of mental health, 3) hands-on tools for better practices through creative interventions of care from frontline work, and 4) Q & A.
Bio:
Ranjith Kulatilake (he/they)has been working with LGBTQ+ refugees and newcomers for more than a decade. He coordinates The Neighbourhood Group Community Services’ Rainbow Connect resettlement support program. For his work Ranjith received the 2021 City of Toronto Access, Equity and Human Rights Pride Award, the 2020 Anti-oppression Master in Social Work Award at the Toronto Metropolitan University, and the 2014 United Way Toronto Award for Innovation and Creativity. Ranjith was a member of the City of Toronto’s 2SLGBTQ+ Community Advisory Body from November 2020 to November 2022. He is an advisory committee member of the Positive Spaces Initiatives at Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants (OCASI). He holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in social work. Ranjith is also a PhD student in social work at York University.
