Enhancing the awareness of emotions through art and drama among crisis-affected Syrian refugee children in southeast Turkey

By learning to identify feelings and express emotions, children can better cope with the difficulties they face, as well as increase their personal resilience. As the Syrian crisis has entered its seventh year, it has had a negative effect on vulnerable populations, especially children. It should be noted that while not all children have been traumatised, many have experienced conflict and crisis, and in turn face challenges expressing and regulating their emotions and behaviour.

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Introduction to Special Section on : Psychosocial support, conflict transformation and creative approaches in response to the needs of Syrian refugees in Turkey

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) has been involved in psychosocial support activities for migrants, asylum seekers, refugees and crisis-affected communities since the late 1990s. The organisation’s approach to its psychosocial programmes is systemic, interdisciplinary and community based. One main feature of these programmes has been the organisation of executive masters, diploma or certificate courses on psychosocial approaches to population mobility in low-resource or crisis-affected countries and communities.

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Psychosocial support to foster social cohesion between refugee and host communities in Jordan

The internal conflict in Syria has displaced large numbers of the population into neighbouring countries since the uprising in 2011. The large influx of displaced people into Jordan poses great challenges to the international community as well as local authorities, with increasing competition for already scarce resources and services creating rising tensions between refugee and host communities.

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Highlighting the gender disparities in mental health among Syrian refugees in Jordan

Jordan has been a host country to many refugees from neighbouring countries for many years and has recently become a place of refuge for thousands of Syrians. The Syrian crisis has resulted in millions of Syrians fleeing their homes, uncertain of When they will return. Most of those seeking refuge have witnessed and/or experienced traumatic events that have affected their mental well-being in addition to starting over as refugees. Despite the large number of non-profit organizations providing free mental health services to refugees, not everyone has equal access to these services.

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Stigma experienced by families with members with intellectual disabilities in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo

Introduction: This article outlines the results of a participatory action research project to (a) understand stigma experienced by family members of people with intellectual disabilities (IDs) in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo and (b) identify strategies used by these family members to mitigate or cope with stigma.

 

Methods: We conducted 20 semi-structured interviews with family members of people with ID.

 

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Dance movement strategies training to help rebuild social capital in Colombia

Building social capital within a post-conflict scenario is key to achieving sustainable peace. The authors implemented an intervention consisting of a 120-h training programme in dance movement strategies in five violence-affected municipalities in Colombia (n=150). The aim of the intervention was to assess any possible changes in the participants’ states of mindfulness, bodily connection, emotional intelligence, somatic complaints, aggressive reaction, empathy, agency, and subjective emotional experience.

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Trauma-related mental health problems and effectiveness of a stress management group in national humanitarian workers in the Central African Republic

The aim of this study is to assess the levels of anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in national aid workers in Central African Republic as well as to evaluate the effectiveness of a stress management group in reducing those symptoms. Twenty-seven stress management groups were evaluated in two international non-governmental organisations in which 197 national humanitarian aid workers took part. There was a significant decrease in the intensity of every psychopathological variable tested despite a decrease in the sample between the pre- and post-tests.

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‘Better to Drown’ : A Greek Refugee Camp’s Epidemic of Misery

He survived torture in Congo, and a perilous boat journey from Turkey. But Michael Tamba, a former Congolese political prisoner, came closest to death only after he had supposedly found sanctuary at Europe’s biggest refugee camp.

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Trauma and perceived social rejection among Yazidi women and girls who survived enslavement and genocide

 

Background: In August 2014, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), a terrorist organization, attacked the Yazidi’s ancestral homeland in northwestern Iraq. Among other atrocities, they abducted thousands of women and girls and traded many of them into sexual slavery. The aim of this study is to determine the mental health of women and girl survivors of these events in relation to enslavement and experiences with genocide-related events, as well as perceived social rejection in their community.

 

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Mental health capacity building in refugee primary health care settings in Sub-Saharan Africa : impact, challenges and gaps

Background. In 2015, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees started a process of mental health capacity building in refugee primary health care settings in seven countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, ultimately aiming to decrease the treatment gap of mental, neurological and substance use (MNS) conditions in these operations.

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