Almost every city in the US has Central American refugees; Houston has 150,000 Salvadorans; San Francisco has 80,000-150,000; and Los Angeles has more than 250,000. There are over 1/2 million Salvadorans in the US, and the number of Guatemalans increases every year. Suffering many losses and burdened in a shadowed life, the refugee is angry, frustrated, and depressed. Mental health specialists in San Francisco observe how similar the refugees symptoms seem to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), the psychological syndrome 1st described among Viet Nam veterans and disaster victims in the 1970s. An informal survey of 50 Salvadoran clients in an out-patient program at San Fernando Valley Community Mental Health in Southern California found that PTSD was prevalent in most cases, with 19% of the group reporting depression as a major symptom and 54% seriously ill enough to require medication. There seems to be a consensus among many mental health workers that one way out of PTSD is group work with fellow victims. When Central American refugees find themselves in an emotional crisis, there are few resources of mental health aid for them. Support groups help replicate the organic family support system that so many refugees left behind in their own countries.

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