Child, Adolescent and Family Refugee Mental Health

Suzan J. Song, MD, MPH, PhD is a double-board certified child/adolescent & adult psychiatrist and humanitarian mental health and psychosocial (MHPSS) consultant. Currently, she is Director of the Division of Child/Adolescent & Family Psychiatry and Associate Professor at George Washington University, spokesperson on Refugee Mental Health for the American Psychiatric Association and subject matter expert to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on refugee mental health and to the U.S. State Department's Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons. She has provided multiple testimonies to Congress on the mental health of unaccompanied minors and child trafficking. Her work as a humanitarian MHPSS consultant with UNHCR, UNICEF, the International Medical Corps, and the International Rescue Committee is informed by her clinical care of forcibly displaced children, adults, and families (survivors of torture, refugees, asylum seekers, unaccompanied minors, survivors of trafficking, and returned hostages) for over 10 years as medical director of two community clinics and in her current clinic. Dr. Song completed training from the University of Chicago, Harvard, Stanford, and the University of Amsterdam. Her two decades of global mental work span Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ethiopia, KwaZulu/Natal, Haiti, Burundi, Syria/Jordan, the D.R. Congo, and in the U.S. as technical adviser to multiple refugee and survivor of torture programs.

Peter Ventevogel, M.D., Ph.D., is a psychiatrist and a medical anthropologist. Since 2013, he has worked with UNHCR, the refugee agency of the United Nations as their Senior Mental Health Officer based in Geneva. In this role he is responsible for providing guidance and technical support to the country operations of UNHCR worldwide. From 2008-2013 he was editor-in-chief of 'Intervention, Journal for Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Conflict Affected Areas'. He worked with the NGO HealthNet TPO in mental health projects in Afghanistan (2002 - 2005) and Burundi (2005-2008) and as their Technical Advisor Mental Health in the head office in Amsterdam (2008-2011). In 2011 and 2012 he also worked as psychiatrist with Arq Foundation, the national trauma expert centre in the Netherlands. Peter regularly did consultancies for the World Health Organization and the UNHCR in Egypt, Jordan, Libya, Pakistan, Sudan and Syria. He is involved several academic short courses such the annual course Mental Health in Complex Emergencies (Fordham University New York) and the Summer Institute Global Mental Health (Teachers College, Columbia University).