BRYCS - Bridging Refugee Youth and Children's Services

Lead Testing for Refugee Children

The Office of Refugee Resettlement recently released a letter sharing the finding from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that indicates refugee children under age six may have elevated lead levels and should be tested. In addition to working closely with the CDC on this important health issue, ORR has been working through their technical assistance provider on health, the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services Office of Global Health Affairs, to provide accurate and up-to-date information to all concerned. Through their combined efforts a CDC toolkit for working with refugees on this issue will be made available soon.

The American Academy of Pediatrics and the CDC have sponsored a Congressional Briefing on Refugees and Lead Poisoning this month. Dr. Paul Geltman, a pediatrician and expert on this issue, is a panel member speaking at the briefing on the basics of lead poisoning and his study on blood levels in refugee children and international adoptees. Dr. Geltman is the Medical Director for the Refugee and Immigrant Health Program at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. For an overview of the issues, a list of recommendations by the CDC, and additional recommended reading on lead levels in immigrant children, read the summary that Dr. Geltman has written for BRYCS.

UPDATE: On Hmong and TB Testing

The US Embassy Refugee Resettlement Unit issued two Hmong Resettlement Program News Bulletins on TB screening. These bulletins are written in English and in Hmong and dated 11 February 2005, followed by an updated version dated 18 February 2005. More information on these issues can be found in the CDC's background documents issued January 2005: TB FAQ sheet and Hmong Lao refugees, Tuberculosis and Multi-Drug Resistant Tuberculosis, and on the CDC TB Education and Training Resources Web site which has resources on TB in the Hmong language. The State Department January 28, 2005 press release and January 2005 CDC documents are also available as one document here.

Targeted Resources for Professionals

The BRYCS Clearinghouse serves a number of audiences - practitioners, researchers and policymakers, refugee educators, program managers/administrators and refugees. In order to help professionals quickly and easily retrieve the most pertinent information, we have organized resources into annotated bibliographies by topic. You can access these new compilations by by clicking on the specific links at the top of this home page or this link.

New Report on Health of Immigrant Youth

The Urban Institute has released The Health and Well-Being of Young Children of Immigrants. The in-depth report focuses on young children under 6 in immigrant families in the U.S. and discusses immigration trends and demographics, immigrant family characteristics such as poverty and family structure, use of government benefits, health status and insurance coverage, and child care arrangements. One conclusion of the report is "children of immigrants are more likely to have fair or poor health and to lack health insurance or a usual source of health care." For more information, see the BRYCS Clearinghouse record.

Refugee Parenting Manual – Download for Free

BRYSC has produced Strengthening Services for Refugee Parents: Guidelines and Resources, a comprehensive manual developed to assist agencies that work with refugee parents. BRYCS interviewed 28 agencies from 13 states across the U.S. to learn more about service strengths and challenges in their work with refugee parents. The manual contains guidelines and tools that are based on what the interviews revealed about the challenges newcomer parents face, how parenting services can help them, the role of evaluation, and which resources are helpful in planning and implementing effective services. It is available free in PDF format.

“Lost Boys” Featured in People Magazine

Imagine being a young, orphaned child walking hundreds of miles through the bush and desert with no food, your only clothes the t-shirt and shorts you are wearing. This was the plight of thousands of young boys fleeing their war-torn homes during Sudan’s civil war. The Lost Boys of Sudan are the topic of “Message of Hope,” a February 7 article in People Magazine.