Nothing Floats Forever: Understanding Statelessness & Mental Health

Nationality is a fundamental human right. To be deprived of citizenship touches almost all aspects of daily life and leaves those who experience statelessness in a limbo that impacts their sense of identity, family, and basic safety. This training will provide essential information about statelessness and the experience of stateless people living in the US. It will introduce core mental health theories, such as systemic trauma, ambiguous loss and socioecological models of wellbeing to understand the experience of stateless people.

The training will also touch on community and peer support networks, and highlight the resilience of the stateless community in the US. The goal of this training is to prepare mental health providers with the information and background necessary to understand how to begin working with stateless individuals and families. The two-part training will feature information presented by Karina Ambartsoumian-Clough, executive director of United Stateless, and Leora Hudak and Amy Kamel of the Center for Victims of Torture (CVT), who have led resilience and psychosocial support activities with the stateless community since 2020. Part 1 of the training will focus on important background information on statelessness in the US, core mental health theories, and practical information about statelessness and access to benefits/services. Part 2 will focus on applied case presentations and group-based consultation. Participants will be invited to register for a database of providers willing and able to work with stateless individuals in their practice settings.