Hello and welcome to Speaking of Psychology, a bi-weekly podcast from the American Psychological Association.

The crisis at the U.S. southern border shows no signs of stopping, and the American system designed to serve immigrants and refugees is overwhelmed and ill-prepared to handle the hundreds

of thousands of people who have been apprehended since October 2018.

Many immigrants are fleeing their home countries to escape violence, poverty, and oppression,

and are seeking protection in the U.S. Psychologists all around the country have been moved to help with this humanitarian

crisis by providing mental health services, forensic psychological evaluations, and advocacy

services to these vulnerable people. One such psychologist is Dr. Claudette Antunia, a volunteer forensic

psychological evaluator at the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project.

She provides pro bono evaluations to this nonprofit agency in the state of Washington

that have helped hundreds of immigrants attain asylum or other forms of legal relief

available to undocumented immigrants so they can stay in the U.S.

She's also involved with a refugee mental health resource

network, an APA initiative led by our division on trauma psychology, and she's a member of our

immigration working group. Welcome, Dr. Antunia. It's wonderful to have you here to talk about this

very important topic. Thank you very much for asking me. I imagine most of our listeners haven't met

or been

in close contact with a person who's made this long and treacherous journey from their home country

to the U.S. border, to then be apprehended by immigration officials, possibly separated from their

children or other family members. To bring the images we've seen in the news to life for our listeners,

can you describe the mental and physical conditions of the people you work with?

Most of the people that I work with have gone through an arduous journey to get here.

By the time they actually cross the border, they're exhausted.

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