Question
Should the trauma experienced by immigrant youth be addressed within schools?
Answer
A school social worker’s primary job is to support and facilitate academic learning in a traditional sense. However, many of the immigrant youth school social workers encounter do not need intensive trauma work. But they do need an opportunity to create a trauma narrative and to have someone bear witness to it. And, to have someone bear witness to their strength, their suffering, and to sort of help them create meaning out of it, so they can move forward.
Therefore, as school social worker working with immigrant youth, I did the trauma work in the school. It is not always pretty, but I think until the systems involved get better at responding to the needs of this population, we are ethically compelled to at least try to address these students’ trauma in the school setting.
This Ask the Expert is an edited excerpt from the podcast, School-based Work with Central American Immigrant Youth Podcast, presented by Stephanie Carnes, PhD, MSW, LCSW, LL.M
