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Welcome to the IRMHP leadership course

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Video: Welcome to the course

With Dr. Kwame McKenzie and Aamna Ashraf

Welcome to the Immigrant and Refugee Mental Health Leadership Course. The course is designed for leaders working with the immigrants and refugees in the health, settlement, and social service sectors. Boards and leaders shape the environment in which services are delivered, through advocacy, through the areas of focus of their strategic and operational plans, and through policies and programmes. Because of that, they need to understand the demographic landscape and what they need to do, to ensure that health and social services are responsive to needs. This will lead to efficient use of resources, better health outcomes, reduce inequities, and good quality of life across the Canadian population. Our leadership course is a short, free, self-directed course, which includes case scenarios at a leadership level, reflective questions, videos, and engaging quizzes to solidify your learning. This course will help leaders understand how to tailor their services to newcomers, how to reduce barriers to service use, how to build partnerships, how to enhance protective factors, and how to support staff mental health. I'd like to thank you in advance for taking the course. We hope this will increase your knowledge as a leader and support the important work you do with immigrant and refugee populations.

Course overview

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Key takeaways of the course

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When you improve health equity, you improve the quality of your organization's services and outcomes for clients. Informed leaders are essential for improving mental health services for immigrants and refugees.

Leaders can consider the following:

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Who is the IRMHP Leadership course for?

This course is for leaders who are committed to understanding immigrant and refugee mental health and who lead staff working with immigrants and refugees in Canada. This includes organizations in the settlement, social services and health care sectors.

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What is the purpose of this course?

The course aims to increase knowledge and capacity, along with helping you accomplish the following goals:

  1. 1

    Improve your knowledge about the mental health needs of immigrants and refugees and understand the supports newcomers require

  2. 2

    Introduce organizational strategies that support and improve mental health for immigrants and refugees.

  3. 3

    Develop appropriate policies related to immigrant and refugee mental health.

  4. 4

    Ensure a supportive work environment for staff members as they promote the mental health of immigrants and refugees.

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Course learning objectives

At the end of this course you will be able to:

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Course contents

The course has four main sections and a number of supplemental pages that expand on concepts mentioned throughout.

  • The healthy immigrant effect and social determinants of health
  • Health equity is a human right
  1. 1A Equity is a high priority for boards
  2. 1B Equity is a high priority for funders
  3. 1C Equity is a high priority for communities
  4. 1D Equity and human rights
  5. + Knowledge check

Additional resources

  • Factors affecting individual wellness
  1. 2A Creating an equitable environment
  2. 2B Implementing antiracism and anti-oppression organizational strategies
  3. 2C Recognizing burnout and compassion fatigue and promoting self-care
  4. + Knowledge check

Additional resources

  • Self-care
  • Compassion Fatigue
  • Burnout and its effects
  • Vicarious trauma
  • Seeking Help
  • How organizations can support staff
  • How supervisors can support staff
  • Workplace empowerment
  1. 3A Equity as a measure of service quality
  2. 3B Equitable services improve outcomes
  3. 3C Equitable services are more cost effective
  4. + Knowledge check
  1. 4 Tools and resources

Additional resources

  • Implicit Bias
  • icon The course is organized in this order because service delivery is embedded within multiple layers of an organization. In addition, organization-level factors play a key role in influencing staff and creating the environment for the types of services that will be provided and how they are delivered.
  • Get started!

    Before you begin the course, we ask that you take a look at course details (including course conditions, acknowledgements, and tips on how to use this course platform), and to complete a short pre-course quiz.

    Once you have completed the pre-course quiz, you will have access to the course pages.

    Discussion board

    In addition to the IRMHP's Community of practice discussion board Leadership course participants have access to a private forum where you can discuss topics related to this course

    Access the Leadership discussion board