Patricia Shannon
Assistant
Professor
Office: 281 Peters Hall
Phone: (612) 624-3490
E-mail: pshannon@umn.edu
Mailing Address: 105 Peters Hall
Degrees & Institutions
Ph.D., Clinical Psychology, University of Michigan
M.A., Clinical Psychology, University of Michigan
M.A., Social Work, University of Chicago
Shannon brings clinical expertise to School of Social Work
The School of Social Work welcomes Patricia Shannon to its faculty roster beginning Fall Semester 2009. Dr. Shannon provided psychotherapy to refugee and asylum-seeking torture survivors from over sixty different countries through her work at The Center for Victims of Torture. Founded in 1985, the Center is a private, nonprofit, nonpartisan organization with headquarters in Minneapolis and offices in St. Paul, Minnesota and Washington, D.C. It also operates healing centers in the countries of Jordan, Sierra Leone, Liberia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
During her tenure at the Center, Patricia taught community providers how to assess and treat war trauma and torture survivors in a variety of settings that included medical and mental health clinics, schools, legal clinics and community based organizations. She also worked to develop in-depth community capacity building projects to promote the overall health of communities with newly arriving refugees through restoring and strengthening leadership capabilities, creating networks of support that are responsive to the unique needs of each community and studying and disseminating successful models of community based care. In all of these efforts she truly brings a social work perspective to the mental health needs of the community.
Recently Dr. Shannon completed a three-year capacity-building project (The New Neighbors/Hidden Scars Project), aimed at improving the health and mental health of survivors of war living in the Northwest Hennepin area. The project was designed as a model for under-resourced areas that are struggling to meet the mental health needs of rapid influxes of refugees. Some outcomes of that project included developing a multidisciplinary network of providers to improve the coordination of care for survivors; the development of immigrant-led support groups in housing complexes and churches; the development of treatment groups for refugee students and the development of an African Food Distribution Center that provides health and social service information along with culturally appropriate foods.
Patricia then received funding from the Blue Cross Blue Shield Foundation to work in partnership with the State Refugee Health Coordinator, the University of Minnesota and The Center for Victims of Torture to develop culturally appropriate mental health screening tools for newly arriving refugees. Having culturally trained providers who can respond to the mental health needs of refugees is one of the challenges of early assessment. In response to this need, Patricia completed a needs assessment of mainstream providers and community based organizations and refugee community leaders in the East Metro area to better understand the strengths and challenges faced by refugee providers. This needs assessment will form the basis of a community based capacity building project that will seek to train culturally appropriate referral resources and provide health information to refugee populations to reduce the mental health stigma that prevents refugees from seeking and receiving care.
“The overall goal of this work is to help refugee trauma survivors receive treatment earlier in their resettlement process to maximize their ability to learn English, obtain employment and resettle successfully,” said Dr. Shannon. “Too often we see refugees at the center who have lived for years in Minnesota and who are struggling with symptoms of trauma and torture that prevent them from living fully productive and satisfactory lives. They may have difficulty sleeping and concentrating or be too depressed to learn English or even look for a job. This prolonged struggle for health seems unnecessary. If we can reach out to refugee survivors sooner in their resettlement process, there is the possibility of preventing long term struggles with symptoms of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Major Depression.”
Patricia’s academic appointment with the School of Social Work will be to teach mental health courses in the MSW Program; engage in continuing mental health research; and to help represent the School in the important areas of mental health services and social work practice.
Dr. Shannon has graduate degrees in Social Work (University of Chicago) and Clinical Psychology (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor), as well as a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor).