Almost $100,000 in research grants for the Office of Interdisciplinary Studies will provide means for new research about autism, mental health needs of refugees and teaching education.
Interdisciplinary studies, which promotes association between students and faculty who work in various areas on campus, allows people to study topics in a more complex way and from different perspectives, said Lorelei Sells, development officer for interdisciplinary studies.
The program received eight research grants, which Sells said will help them research vital topics, including immigration.
Caren Frost, a social work research professor, and Yda Smith, an occupational therapy professor, received one of the grants to study the physical and mental health needs of Salt Lake City refugees and immigrants. Frost said the grant is for preliminary research that will lead to a larger grant proposal to provide extended funding for even more research.
Now that the research is being done, Frost and others can look at resources, specifically health care available to refugees and immigrants who visit the Hartland Partnership Center where services such as English classes or financial literacy classes are provided. With that research, Frost can determine how well the resources are helping refugees and immigrants build a good life in the Salt Lake City area, she said.
“We want to make sure what we’re presenting works with what (the refugees and immigrants) are thinking,” Frost said. “One of our aims is really to gain a better understanding of what they need.”
Both groups have different needs. Although refugees have government permission to come to the United States and have a social security number, immigrants do not have any legal standing when arriving in the United States and usually travel here by choice, Smith said.
“Refugees are more fleeing,” Smith said. “It’s considered forced migration and they don’t have a country to go back to.”
The refugees and immigrants involved with the Hartland Partnership Center, which is coordinated with the U through University Neighborhood Partners, come from all over the world, including the Middle East, Africa, Thailand and Mexico, Smith said.
As they focus on researching the health care services provided to these immigrants, the researchers said they need to remember that many of the people who come to live in Salt Lake City have never had access to health care. Also, the stress placed on them, especially in refugee camps, can lead to mental problems as well as physical ones, Frost said.
Bernadette Kiraly and Peter Weir, both clinical physicians at the U, are on the health team for this research. They do screenings to find out what the migrants need and then the migrants are connected to health care systems in the community, Smith said.
“These programs are designed around what they say they need,” Smith said.
For better dialogue, a resident committee at the Hartland Apartments complex where immigrants live provides the partners with feedback, and they talk about how to improve the system, Frost said.
“They have different cultural expectations and understandings,” Frost said. “It’s an opportunity to learn about how people coming in from other countries view the world. They educate us and we educate them.”