Idioms of Distress Amongst Rohingya Refugees in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh – Shaun Nemorin’s Address to the 2021 ACOTS Conference

In September 2021, STARTTS School Liaison Team Leader, Shaun Nemorin addressed the 2021 conference of the Australasian Conference on Traumatic Stress (ACOTS). Shaun discusses his research into how members of the Rohingya refugee community in Bangladesh conceptualise and describe their distress and mental health. Shaun presents a model for how the idiom of “tension” used by Rohingya research participants relates to a biopsycholsocial understanding of trauma. Shaun argues that the unique cultural heritage of the Rohingya necessitates that their idioms of distress and explanatory models should be the foundation for designing interventions that suit the ecological context in which the Rohingya community live.