Managing uncertainty; coping styles of refugees in western countries

This article presents the results of a research project whose objective was to describe and analyse how people seeking asylum in the Netherlands2 make sense f their experience. The broader aim of this study was to provide information that could lead to improved mental health care (Kramer, Bala, Dijk van, & Öry, 2003). This article accordingly ends with suggestions to implement the study’s findings in other countries where refugees face uncertainty.

Key words: asylum seekers, coping, qualitative research, refugees

 

Not talking about traumatic experiences: harmful or healing? Coping with war memories in southwest Uganda

Although there has been peace in most parts of Uganda since 1986, in Mbarara district in southwest Uganda nobody talks about their war experience; there is one big conspiracy fsilence. According to the people who live there, it is not good to talk, it can be dangerous and can make you ill. This article deals with the question why these people keep silent about their horrifying war experiences. It appears that the community and the social and cultural institutions have been destroyed. People have no public space to share their memories of the war.

Community-based interventions in the wake of terrorism: the overview; the balance between awareness and fear; citizens and resilience

preface

This overview of community-based interventions in the wake of terrorism is one of the four products of Impacts EU-project: Citizens and Resilience, the balance between awareness and fear. It offers brief descriptions of best-practice community-based interventions in the context of psychosocial care following a terrorist attack.

Prevalence and Risk Factors of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in Older Adults

Background: Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has scarcely been researched in the elderly. There is no population-based information on prevalence and risk factors in older persons. Patients with PTSD are often not recognized or incorrectly diagnosed. As the disorder has great implications for the quality of life, a correct diagnosis and treatment are crucial. Increased knowledge on vulnerability factors for PTSD can facilitate diagnostic procedures and health management in the elderly.

 

Testimony therapy : Treatment method for traumatized victims of organized violence

Former political prisoners in Chile gave testimony of their traumatic experiences, which resulted in diminishing their posttraumatic symptoms. Based on this experience, testimony therapy has been developed and used in treatment of traumatized victims of war or other organized violence.

Attachment and Traumatic Stress in Female Holocaust Child Survivors and Their Daughters

Objective: During the Holocaust, extreme trauma was inflicted on children who experienced it. Two questions were central to the current investigation. First, do survivors of the Holocaust still show marks of their traumatic experiences, even after more than 50 years? Second, was the trauma passed on to the next generation?

The efficacy of a mental health program in Bosnia-Herzegovina: impact on coping and general health

The efficacy of a community-based psychosocial program in Bosnia-Herzegovina during the war and immediate postwar years (1994-1999) was described in this article. Ten centers provided various kinds of psychological help in the besieged city of Sarajevo and the towns of Zenica, Travnik, and Vitez. Since 1994, an intensive monitoring system has documented data on clients, interventions, and outcomes. This study focused on the systematic evaluation of counseling interventions aimed to alleviate the distress in wartime.

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.

Stress and coping in traumatised interpreters: a pilot study of refugee interpreters working for a humanitarian organiation

Twelve Kosovo-Albanian interpreters at the Danish Red Cross (DRC) asylum reception centre participated in an interview about their background and work. The majority had fled from the Serbian persecution in Kosovo, which involved living in a permanently hypervigilant stat, with intense fear of rape, ethnic suppression and civil war. All of the interpreters reported a heavy workload and a high level of distress. The most distressing part was interpreting at interviews for psychologists, where stories of torture, annihilation, persecution, and loss were told.

Working towards overcoming psychological consequences of oppression: an example from India

This article focuses on the psychological consequences ofoppression in the form f caste-based discrimination in India. These psychological consequences are described as processes in the minds of oppressed people, processes that are often unconscious.

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