Refugees find work faster thanks to preventive mental health care

Participation of refugees lags significantly behind that of other migrant groups and Dutch natives. To ensure better job market participation among this group, we must also focus on their mental health. So argues José Muller-Dugic, who will receive her PhD at Radboud University on 26 February. She developed Mosaic, a positive psychology course for refugees. Refugees go through an incredibly stressful time: fleeing from their home country, and finding their way in a new country where they also have to deal with all sorts of stressors. And yet, little attention is paid to the mental health of status holders. Muller-Dugic: "If this is addressed at all, it is with traditional treatments aimed at trauma and depression, for example.