Policies during COVID-19 and their impact on immigrant families' psychological well-being: A critically engaged practice.

INTRODUCTION

The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated, and complicated stressors related to immigrant families' experience with U.S. immigration policies.

METHOD

This article uses a critically engaged practice (CEP) framework to examine three policies and their implications for the health and well-being of immigrant families during the COVID-19 pandemic (a) Detention and Removal of Alien Parents or Legal Guardians policy, (b) Order Suspending the Right to Introduce Certain Persons from Countries where a Quarantinable Communicable Disease Exists, and (c) Field Guidance on Deportability and Inadmissibility on Public Charge Grounds.

RESULTS

Our article presents a CEP framework to empower clinicians in integrated healthcare settings to better understand and communicate policies with their patients.

DISCUSSION

Policy-informed CEP asks clinicians to (a) remain current with policy change; (b) have the ability to interpret policy and or policy change to clients; and (c) be aware of not only the primary effects of policy on the family but also the secondary impacts to their system. Clinical implications are provided. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).