Staff support in Haiti

The earthquake in January 2010 that destroyed Port au Prince, Haiti, has been described as the most devastating humanitarian disaster on record. The author, a mental health professional and a dance movement therapist with more than 12 years working experience in Haiti, encountered numerous anecdotal reports of physical illness and psychological distress amongst rescue and recovery workers, humanitarian aid workers, and others. This field report describes a staff support programme in Haiti that consisted of three phases: 1) psychological first aid;

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Psychological first aid pilot: Haiti emergency response

Psychological first aid (PFA) is an approach for providing basic psychological support to people in acute distress. It is now viewed as one of the primary early psychosocial interventions during, or immediately following, a crisis. World Vision International, War Trauma Foundation and World Health Organisation have developed a PFA guide for low and middle income countries (LAMIC) following acute emergencies.

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How qualitative information helped to shape quantitative research instruments in Rwanda

Rwanda experienced extreme violence and genocide during a three month period starting in April 1994. In the northern regions, there had been ongoing violence since 1990. Many inhabitants still suffer emotionally from the consequences of this era. We performed a quantitative study to measure the effectiveness of sociotherapy; a community based psychosocial intervention carried out in northern Rwanda.

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Screening and brief intervention for high-risk alcohol use in Mae La refugee camp, Thailand: a pilot project on the feasibility of training and implementation

Many populations that are displaced by conflict experience health and social problems connected to alcohol use. Screening for high-risk alcohol use and brief intervention is a core public health strategy for decreasing the harm related to alcohol use. Experience among populations displaced by conflict is, however, limited. The authors conducted a pilot project in a long standing Burmese refugee camp in Thailand, using the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) as a screening instrument. The intervention was piloted through the existing primary health care system.

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Refugee women survivors of war related sexualised violence: a multicultural framework for service provision in resettlement countries

This paper explores the question of redressing war related sexualised violence, often referred to as war rape, with refugee women in resettlement contexts using a Canadian case example. The first part of the paper uses theory and research to frame sexual-ised violence as a tool of war whose practice and impact are shaped by gender and cultural factors.

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Care for the caretakers: rolling out a protocol or developing tailor-made programmes on the spot?

Some western nongovernmental organisations ( NGOs) have developed protocols aimed at providing care for the caretakers. The authors, three psychosocial workers in an Asian country, show an approach that is more sensitive to the local context than any protocol could ever be. This is done bygiving a detailed description of a two-day ‘stress management workshop’ that was offered to two groups of local staff members from an international NGO (INGO).

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Psychosocial response to the Haiti earthquake: the experiences of International Organization for Migration

This article briefly describes the International Organization for Migration’s (IOM) immediate psychosocial response to the January 2010 earthquake in Haiti, and aims to substantiate some of its underlying principles. The interconnectedness of activities at the national and inter-agency coordination, direct intervention and capacity building levels are illustrated, with particular regard to the specificities of the Haitian culture, and of the pace of the overall humanitarian intervention.

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Basic versus focused psychosocial interventions for community wellbeing: lessons following the Nargis cyclone interventions in Burma/Myanmar

Psychosocial interventions in Burma/Myanmar are a new phenomenon. Following the Nargis cyclone in Burma/Myanmar, assessments highlighted a clear need to address the psychosocial issues in local communities. Within the existing socio-political constraints, nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) tried to address these issues in different ways. National NGOs tried to help communities by organising community based psychosocial support programmes. This paper describes and analyses two models of psychosocial interventions.

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When words are not enough ... psychodynamic psychotherapy in chronic conflict settings

The field of mental health and psychosocial support is now globally recognised as a valid element of humanitarian aid. Medecins Sans Frontie' res has been a leader in this work for many years. On re£ecting on the article by Gaboulaud et al. (2010), we pose the following questions (detailed below): How would psychodynamic psychotherapy have to be adapted to the Palestinian context? What is the role of interpreters? How effective and sustainable was the work?

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Do victims of violence need psychodynamic treatment?

We wish to thank the editors of Intervention for the opportunity to comment on the article by Gaboulaud, et al. (2010): ‘Psychological support for Palestinian children and adults: an analysis of data from people referred to Medecins Sans Frontieres programme for behavioural and emotional disorders in the occupied Palestinian territory’, in this issue. Gaboulaud, et al.

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