Mental health symptoms following war and repression in eastern Afghanistan

Context Decades of armed conflict, suppression, and displacement resulted in a high prevalence of mental health symptoms throughout Afghanistan. Its Eastern province of Nangarhar is part of the region that originated the Taliban movement. This may have had a distinct impact on the living circumstances and mental health condition of the province's population.

Humiliation or Dignity: Regional Conflicts in the Global Village

Often regional conflicts are treated as if they are placed in a vacuum, independent of their environment. This paper attempts to put regional conflict regions into the perspective of a globalising world. It is suggested that feelings of humiliation play a central role in this process. Human rights ideals extend dignity to all humankind and prohibit humiliatingpeople as lesser beings. Human rights ideals thus define high goals and consequently create intense feelings of humiliation when violated.

Interventions and Methods of the Theatre Action Group

In this article I will review three types of psychosocial interventions done by the organisation Theatre Action Group (TAG) in Jaffna, Sri Lanka, aimed at successively children, their parents and the community and teachers.

Training Counsellors in Areas of Armed Conflict

This article is about the learning needs of starting counsellors in areas of armed conflict. The curricula for the training of counsellors usually are based on ideas regarding which knowledge, skills and attitudes are required for effective counselling. The curricula do not always take the personal needs and backgrounds of the participants into account. Counselling trainingin areas of armed conflict can only be effective if the trainer assesses these personal backgrounds and needs and adapts his training approach accordingly.

Mental Health Programs In Areas Of Armed Conflict: The Medecins Sans Frontieres Counselling Centres In Bosnia-Hercegovina

Mental health programmes in complex emergencies are generally accepted as an important component of aid work. However, this is a relatively recen t developmen t and th ere is a lack of theory-based practice and little analysis of previous interventions upon which effective, appropriate and sustainable programmes can be based. This article describes the theoretical framework, objectives,...

Collective Trauma in Sri Lanka

The ethnic war in Sri Lanka has brought psychosocial problems for individuals and families. In addition, it has had a devastating effect on Sri Lankan society; we can speak of a collective trauma. It has caused regression of all development, destroying social capital, structures and institutions. It has also resultedin changes, for the worse, offundamental social processes like socialization, social norms and social networks.

The prevalence of mental health problems in Rwandan and Burundese refugee camps

Objective: We examined the prevalence of mental health problems in refugees living in camps that emerged in Tanzania during the Rwanda crisis that started in 1994.
Method: Using the 28-item version of the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-28), we examined two samples: a random sample (n=854) and a sample of clients of a psychosocial support programme in these camps (n=23). Sensitivity, specificity and positive- and negative predictive values were estimated for several cut-off scores of the GHQ-28.

Pages