There is mounting evidence that telemental health is an effective delivery method for treating a variety of mental, emotional, behavioral, and relational health problems. While many of the therapeutic skills leading to the effectiveness of face-to-face treatments are transferable, the effectiveness of telemental health requires unique skills. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to determine the experience of learning how to use videoconferencing to deliver relationally focused mental health care. Participants included 10 graduates of a COAMFTE-accredited master's degree program emphasizing training in telemental health. Each student had practicum placements that required videoconferencing to deliver relationally based psychotherapy. Analysis of interview data revealed (a) personal reservations about distance delivery; (b) the importance of scaffolding student learning through curriculum, supervision, and mental health-care delivery protocols; (c) the technological barriers associated with this delivery method; and (d) overcoming technological barriers through intentionality.

This study explored how ethnic Yazidi refugee women overcome adversity to promote psychosocial health and well-being within the context of U.S. resettlement. Nine Yazidi women participated in two small photovoice groups, each group lasting eight sessions (16 sessions total). Women discussed premigration and resettlement challenges, cultural strengths and resources, and strategies to overcome adversity. Yazidi women identified trauma and perceived loss of culture as primary stressors. Participants’ resilience processes included using naan (as sustenance and symbol) to survive and thrive as well as by preserving an ethnoreligious identity. Findings suggest that women’s health priorities and resilience-promoting strategies center on fostering a collective cultural, religious, and ethnic identity postmigration. Importantly, women used naan (bread) as a metaphor to index cultural values, experiences of distress, and coping strategies. We discuss implications for this in promoting refugees’ mental and psychosocial health in U.S. resettlement.

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Human rights practice is of particular importance to addressing health disparities among forcibly displaced groups. Older refugees in low- and middle-income countries may be socially and structurally vulnerable to poor health related to human rights abuses, xenophobia, and inadequate resources compounded with ageism and isolation. In this policy and practice note, we use findings from a phenomenological study with 23 older Congolese refugees in urban Tanzania to explore the role of religious institutions to improve the health and wellbeing of older urban-displaced adults. Older refugees described how religious networks fostered spiritual support and guidance, enhanced social support and friendship, and provided opportunities to receive material and informational support. We consider how these narratives of support embedded within religious networks can reconfigure the role(s) of third sector/civil society (that is nongovernmental organizations [NGOs], nonprofit agencies) in urban humanitarian settings. We address possible strengths and challenges of including faith communities and actors in humanitarianism, outlining how such collaborative efforts could adhere to human rights tenets. Finally, we note how qualitative inquiry such as phenomenology is aligned with human rights in seeking to uphold human dignity and that these data, therefore, have special relevance in informing human rights praxis.