Welcome to the Boston Center for Refugee Health and Human Rights, located at the Boston Medical Center in Boston, MA, USA. Through an innovative model of out-patient care, we provide comprehensive medical, mental health, and dental care—coordinated with legal and social services—to over 300 individuals from 67 countries each year. Interpreter services are available for over 30 languages to aid in the healing journey of each patient and their families.

The Center is a member of the National Consortium of Torture Treatment Programs and operates as an interdisciplinary collaboration among clinicians and experts from Boston Medical Center (Departments of Psychiatry, Medicine, Family Medicine, Pediatrics, Social Work, and Interpreter Services), Boston University (Schools of Medicine, Public Health, Dentistry, and Law), Global Lawyers and Physicians—a non-governmental organization, and the National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Mission

Our mission is to provide comprehensive health care for refugees and survivors of torture and related trauma, coordinated with legal aid and social services. We also exist to educate and train agencies and professionals who serve this patient population, to advocate for the promotion of health and human rights in the United States and worldwide, and to conduct clinical, epidemiological, and legal research for the better understanding and promotion of health and quality of life for survivors of torture and related trauma.

History

The Boston Center for Refugee Health and Human Rights (BCRHHR) at Boston Medical Center (BMC) was founded in December 1998 by Susan Akram, JD, Associate Professor of Law, Paul Geltman, MD, MPH, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Michael A. Grodin, MD, Professor of Health Law, Psychiatry, and Socio-Medical Sciences and Community Medicine, Terrence Keane, PhD, Professor of Psychiatry, Alejandro Moreno, MD, Instructor of Medicine, and Linda Piwowarczyk, MD, MPH, Instructor of Psychiatry. The BCRHHR grew out of the International Mental Health Program established in 1995 by Dr. Piwowarczyk.

The founders’ shared vision was to respond to patients' medical and psychological needs. In particular, they desired to help refugees and survivors of torture and related trauma overcome posttraumatic stress disorder, depression, and the physical effects of persecution. The founders thus began the Center in order to provide ongoing primary care services for individuals and their families, to meet families' medical and social needs, and listen to their stories . . . some of which are being told for the first time. As our patients begin to feel better, learn English, attain asylum, reunite with their families, go to work, attend school, and extend kindness to others after being brutally tortured, we at the Center repeatedly witness the victory of the human spirit over despair and brutality. This process of transformation has inspired and continues to motivate our work.