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ROCKY MOUNTAIN SURVIVORS CENTER
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Welcome to our site. We are located at 1547 Gaylord Street, Denver, CO 80206 303-321-3221
What are our mission and values? The Rocky Mountain Survivors Center (RMSC) assists survivors of torture and war trauma, and their families, to create a new future. We achieve this by providing mental health counseling, and by providing access to health care, legal and social support services. RMSC also provides training, support groups and education to personnel from other organizations that assist refugees and immigrants. RMSC is profoundly impressed by the dignity and courage of survivors. Our efforts are guided by their determination to transcend the victim identity and be seen as a person, not as a case. RMSC values our clients as sources of wisdom, not just as consumers of services. We live in an age that bemoans the absence of heroes, but each day at RMSC we are inspired by the heroism of our clients- ordinary people who suffer extraordinary trauma, yet who choose to recover. RMSC is honored by our clients trust to assist them to reacquire strength in their lives, families, and new American communities. Who is assisted by the Rocky Mountain Survivors Center? RMSC is a leader among the 33 treatment programs in the United States for survivors of torture that are affiliated as the National Consortium of Torture Treatment Programs. Since its inception in October 1996, RMSC has successfully provided direct services by mental health professionals to the survivors of torture and war trauma, and their families, regardless of their immigration status. RMSC assists citizens, refugees, asylum seekers and undocumented individuals in search of permanent status, all who cannot return to their home countries without endangering their lives and the lives of their families. RMSC has assisted more than 600 survivors. The need for our services not only persists, but also continues to grow. Sadly, torture is a growth industry that is still practiced by nearly two-thirds of the worlds countries. Often, people do not want to think about survivors, because the idea of torture is so unthinkable. Instead, people prefer to think that survivors only live in the foreign countries whose unfathomable wars and hatreds could lead to torture. However, survivors are our neighbors in our communities. In Colorado alone, about 1000 refugees and 300 asylum seekers arrive annually. Amnesty International estimates that between 30-50% of refugees and asylum seekers have suffered human rights abuses, including torture. This means that an average of 500 new neighbors annually in Colorado potentially need the services provided by RMSC and other partner agencies. RMSCs clients are from the worlds countries with the most deplorable human rights records. Frequently, our clients are the political, social and religious leaders of their communities, whose torture is intended to leave lasting damage and debilitating consequences in their lives and communities. Currently, we assist clients from 34 countries (such as Somalia, Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mauritania, Uganda, the Former Republic of Yugoslavia, and Afghanistan) and deliver services in 20 languages. Also, about three-quarters of our clients are asylum seekers and asylees. Our expertise in assisting the survivors of torture and war trauma has been acknowledged by our funding through international, national and state grants, and through private contributions. Grant assistance comes from the United Nations High Commission for Refugees Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture, from the United States Department of Health and Human Services Office of Refugee Resettlement (through the Torture Victims Relief Act and through the Standing Announcement for Services to Newly Arrived Refugees Category 3), and from the Colorado Refugee Services Program. Our state foundation support comes from The Colorado Trust Supporting Immigrant and Refugee Families Initiative, and additionally from such foundations as the Anschutz Family Foundation, Caring for Colorado, the Denver Foundation, HealthONE Alliance, and the Western Union Foundation. Our expertise has also been acknowledged through international and national invitations to our staff to present papers and conduct training. How is assistance provided? Our clients find it even more difficult to rebuild their lives and envisage a future in this country, where the language and customs are new and difficult to negotiate, and where their immigration status may be uncertain. Personal and community resources that may have survived with them are much more difficult to access in their new country. We have developed a multidisciplinary team approach to client care that acknowledges the holistic and multifaceted nature of recovery and empowers the clients to choose their form of assistance at their own pace. Our clients make determined and committed choices, and make measurable recoveries, to fulfill their goal of participating in and contributing to their new communities. RMSC offers free and confidential mental health treatment in a safe, warm and professional setting. While survivors may find it unbearable to describe the pain and suffering they have endured, their symptoms speak for them. Our clients frequently demonstrate the symptoms associated with Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). RMSC provides counseling through both individual and group therapy programs. Our unique and separate group programs for asylum seekers, men, women and children address their special needs as survivors or secondary survivors of trauma. RMSCs therapists have particular expertise in cross-cultural counseling and in providing counseling through interpretation. Our therapists use a variety of treatment approaches appropriate for torture and trauma recovery. Psychiatric consultation and medication management are available for all of our clients. RMSC also provides mental health profiles for use in Immigration Court for clients seeking asylum. Other staff members have health care, legal and social services expertise to assist our clients with their compound needs, and to help them access a variety of community programs. Frequently, our clients gain access to these community programs only after extensive education and advocacy from our staff, because the clients we assist present backgrounds and needs that are well outside the expertise and accommodation of most mainstream providers. RMSC trains members from the clients expatriate communities to serve as both interpreters and culture brokers. We provide their services to assist our clients overcome linguistic and cultural barriers, so clients can fully participate in our programs and other programs we have accessed in the community. RMSC is a member of the Colorado Refugee Network Council, an advisory board to the Colorado Refugee Coordinator. The Council includes representatives from resettlement, health care, educational and vocational agencies, which collaborate to better utilize the limited resources available for refugees. Because of the unique services for survivors offered by RMSC, other participating agencies of the Council refer their refugee clients to RMSC for counseling and case management. As important, RMSC collaborates with these agencies to ensure that we do not duplicate the services they provide so well. RMSC collaborates with other refugee and social service organizations to help our clients move beyond mental health issues so they can better integrate into their new communities- our communities. While RMSC is the regional organization best qualified to assist survivors of torture and war trauma, and their families, with mental health issues, other regional organizations are more effective in assisting with this integration. We value our partnership with these organizations and the access they provide to additional health care, legal and social programs. In addition to its treatment programs, RMSC has developed unique training programs. RMSC trains mainstream mental health professionals, so they have the capacity to accept referrals from RMSC, thus extending and sustaining the resources of RMSC. RMSC trains immigration attorneys so they are better prepared to represent survivors in asylum cases. RMSC also trains personnel in other agencies that have contact with refugees and immigrants who may be survivors, such as Voluntary Agency caseworkers, English as a Second Language staff, vocational school staff, and personnel from mental health and health care agencies. Based on the training provided by RMSC, these professionals can better assist their clients by recognizing their unique experiences and needs, by learning best practices for working with their survivor clients, and by referring their clients to RMSC for more specialized assistance. RMSC provides support groups for the case managers in these agencies around issues of secondary traumatization and burnout. RMSC also presents a community education program concerning the issues of human rights and torture. Trust and hope were destroyed through the human rights abuses perpetrated by a few people. Rebuilding trust and hope takes an entire community. The Rocky Mountain Survivors Center invites you to learn more about our clients and participate in our success.
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