I am a GP.
We see a big variety of refugees from very different backgrounds.
I think the previous traumas that refugees have been through
together with the challenges that they face here
in terms of adjusting...
I think it puts immense stress on the mental health of people, definitely.
I admire my refugee patients.
They've got tremendous resilience and courage
and they're a group of people that have taught me a lot about life and what is important.
There is no fear, we’re comfortable.
In Iraq, we were always fearful.
When your kids went to school you wouldn’t know when they would return.
Here, you are comfortable, no one bothers you, no one harasses you.
There, we were afraid. Here we are not.
Now we are here but some fear still remains with us. We take anti-depressants and vitamin D tablets.
We choose to take medication because we are worried.
There was fear over there, problems, but here, we are comfortable, praise be to God.
We are happier. When we meet people, they have values.
In Iraq people have no values. If someone is killed, they let them die and throw them away.
This group kills, that group kills. Nothing works and there is no law. It is the law of the jungle.
Here, it is very pleasant. Australia is like God’s paradise. I think no country is nicer than Australia.
We like people here, they are pleasant and civilised. No one bothers one another. It is nice.
For a lot of refugees there are so many challenges.
There’s the social adjustment to the customs of Australia,
there’s the isolation they're experiencing, the language barriers
but there's also the dietary adjustment to the foods here.
We are always happy. The first month in Australia was a little bit difficult,
but we got acquainted with people, we met neighbours and people were coming and gathering.
We were very happy.
Our neighbours were very welcoming. One of our neighbours assisted us, she made us very happy.
Another neighbour helped us a lot, even offered us a table and chairs.
When Deema first went to school she said it was very difficult. She didn’t know the language.
It was hard for us too. We had no experience.
Now Deema speaks English, Arfan speaks English. Everything is good.
They are with Australians, they play with their friends. And that makes us very happy.
It's a case of getting people to open up
and talk about that and think about opening up and talking to others about it
and telling them that they can change the way they think about things often through discussion with others.
We were in Turkey for two years. Prior to that we were in Iraq.
Iraq was unpleasant. It was a bad time and ISIS came and occupied Mosul and our situation was very bad.
Our lives were not secure. When our children went to school we were worried until they returned.
We were worried they could get kidnapped, arrested, killed.
It was a miserable life in Iraq. So we left for Turkey.
In Turkey, we applied at the Australian embassy in Ankara to come to Australia. We gave them our documents.
We were accepted as refugees on humanitarian grounds, escaping from Iraq.
We waited five or six months until we were granted refugee status.
Iraq was like an inferno. You didn’t know when you’ll be killed, when something will happen to you.
Your life was not safe, there was no security at all. We were afraid of everything, so we came to Australia.
We have been in Australia for about eight months.
Australia is nice, praise be to God. It is God’s paradise and the people are lovely.
I think a lot of refugees have a stigma around the idea of mental health
and think mental health is a sign of weakness.
I often look at it more as... It’s talking to people and getting help with things that are very stressful in life.
Previous witness of trauma,
family separations,
language barriers...
They're massively stressful events for anyone.
We shifted our minds away from Iraq when we arrived here.
Since then we don’t follow the news from Iraq. Sometimes we come across some news on Facebook.
Other than that we don’t follow the news. We’ve had enough headaches and worries from the news.
We hope things get better in Iraq and in the entire world.
I do recognise that we need to gain people's trust before we can go there.
And opening it up as just someone else to talk to
and that opens up the pathway of saying
how much talking to people in general might be able to help,
particularly talking to people like psychologists or psychiatrists
in terms of... it’s a realisation of the difference it can make.
For people who come here, Australian law is the same for them as for the Australians.
Get Iraq out of your head. In Iraq it was hell, here it is paradise.
Here people are forgiving, they know God, they have a nice life and are friendly.
You meet someone on the street, you think you’ve known them for years.
You go shopping and it pleases you to be there, you can buy anything.
Australia is very pleasant, it is very different from Iraq.
Refugees need to understand the impact of bad mental health
and stress and anxiety on their physical health,
on their interaction with their families,
on their social interactions,
and on their adaptation to a life here.
Stress and anxiety often present with poor sleep,
decreased appetite, decreased energy,
but frequently too, anger and withdrawal from socialisation.
I also do exercises. In the morning we go walking.
When you can see people that get through that struggle
and come out the other side and are living with hope and joy,
it's a massive reward.
You are very welcome, we welcome the Australians, everyone, the caseworkers, everyone, you are all welcome.