Spring 2010
From the Guest Editor
Amanda Coleman Mason, Ph.D

Welcome all to this very special Human Services Today issue. I was asked, as Guest Editor, to spearhead this special edition as a result of my interest and research concerning the needs of immigrant women in the state of Texas. While on leave and researching the plight of immigrant women at the University of North Texas, Dallas as a Visiting Professor, I believed that the challenges that many immigrant groups faced in receiving assistance from various Human Services entities was a widespread dilemma.

In this special edition, we promoted article invitations and submissions concerning the challenges that immigrants from all nationalities and ethnicities face here in the U.S., as well as the role of Human Services in assisting this multitude of immigrant groups in meeting their specific needs.

The first article by Dr. Maudia Gentry, who is a Lecturer at the University of North Texas, Dallas, is an invited piece. Dr. Gentry, a well-known Professor & Lecturer in the south Dallas region is noted for her work in Gerontology and community related efforts in assisting the elderly in maintaining self-sufficiency. She explores the concerns, the plight and challenges of the elderly immigrant population in the areas of Human Services and sectoral-planning in her article: The Challenges of the Elderly Immigrant. Her call for Human Services to ramp up its efforts to meet the elderly immigrants’ needs is a sounding board for future Human Services programs and delivery systems.
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The mental health status of refugee populations was addressed in the manuscript from Dr. Ben Rader, Psy.D., Dr. Sebastian Ssempijja, and Leng Lee, MSW at the Sebastian Family Psychology Practice in Milwaukee, WI. In their article: Culturally Competent Mental Health Services for Refugees: The Case for a Community-Based Treatment Approach, the authors discussed the challenges and best practices that they applied in their mental health treatment approach of Hmong, Hispanic, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Burma, Iraq, Afghanistan, Eritrea, Uganda, Rwanda, Liberia, Sudan, Congo, Bosnia, Croatia, Serbia, and the former Soviet Union refugees.
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Human Services Today was fortunate to receive a manuscript from Dr. Jill C. Dustin, Associate Professor from Old Dominion University titled: Transition Assistance for the Newly Immigrated: The Role of the Human Service Practitioner. As immigrants soon become face-to-face with the challenges concerning transitioning, Dr. Dustin espouses that the field of Human Services must be savvy in its efforts, while assisting newly immigrated groups, during the process of acculturation, while focusing on the multi-dimensional and selective nature of the immigrant experience. Some investigators contend that immigrants do not simply discard their traditional values for new ones, but rather pick, shift, and adjust to the new environment.
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Guest Editor, Dr. Amanda Coleman-Mason, Visiting Human Services Professor at the University of North Texas, Dallas, provides insight on the conundrum concerning Latina immigrants caught in the cycle of Intimate Partner Violence, immigrant culture, and the competencies of Human Services in effectively assisting the needs of this population in the state of Texas. Her article: Providing Human Services to Latina Immigrants: Victims of IPV discusses the numerous challenges and needs of this highly at-risk population in Texas.
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Web Resource Spotlight
Dr. Susan Cramer reviews Immigration and Migration Resources.
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Internationally Speaking
Dr. Alfred Kisubi presents a call to action.
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