A perspective from experiences in post conflict Timor Leste: the IASC Guidelines on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Emergency Settings

In this paper, several lessons are shared based on experiences in post conflict Timor Leste. In order to provide care to patients with mental disorders in their home settings, a specialist community based clinical service was developed as an alternative to using the (already) heavily dysfunctional primary health care system. We found that mental disorder accounted for a disproportionate amount of the disability in the community. Symptoms of post-traumatic stress were widespread and often represented a normative survival reaction to threat to life.

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Psychosocial community approaches and practices in Latin America

The use of the term ‘community approaches’ in psychosocial work often involves multiple meanings, all of which contrast with individual approaches to mental health. The importance of the context emphasizes the need to design and implement emergency programmes in ways that ‘make sense’ to local populations. This requires not only consideration of generational, gender, spiritual, and cultural practices within the community, but also reinforcing existing resilient resources in the face of adversity.

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Humanitarian intervention and cultural translation: a review of the IASC Guidelines on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Emergency Settings

In this article, we place the 'Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) Guidelines on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Emergency Settings’ within the historical context of trauma healing and humanitarian intervention. The IASC taskforce has done important work by bringing to the fore the cultural and local experiences of suffering in humanitarian intervention. The guidelines’ recognition of suffering and social repair as a holistic experience is a significant boon to applied understandings of populations in crisis.

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Developing inter-agency guidelines on mental health and psychosocial support in emergency settings

This paper describes how and why the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) Guidelines on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Emergency Settings were developed. A brief overview about the need for the guidelines, as well as the context and background, are included. Also, a discussion on the process of developing them with an eye towards identifying key issues and obstacles, and the strategies used to manage these issues and enable constructive collaboration, is provided. Also included are the processes of building positive networks and relations across agencies and subfields.

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Mental health and psychosocial interventions and their role in poverty alleviation. Proceedings of a conference

Introduction

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The challenge of recovering from war trauma in the African great lakes region: an experience from Centre Ubuntu in the Projet Colombe Network

Introduction

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Children’s needs or children’s rights? The Convention on the Rights of the Child as a framework for implementing psychosocial programmes

The events that characterise complex emergencies: situations of armed conflict, forced migration and natural disasters, can pose a serious risk of violation of children’s rights. Psychosocial interventions in such contexts are generally implemented from a ‘needs’perspective, and children’s human rights are not integrated into the conceptual framework. This article describes the legal and moral obligations of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and outlines the process of human rights based programming and evaluation.

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A potential resource? Ex-militants in Jammu and Kashmir

This article shares some of the findings of a qualitative study of ex-militants in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. Men who have been involved in militancy were interviewed about their life experience and ideas. A significant theme that emerged through interpretive data analysis was that of an activist identity that evolved over time and life experience. In this regard, they were found to possess personal qualities and convictions that could be seen as valuable resources for social development and peace building.

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Culturally sensitive supervision by expatriate professionals: basic ingredients

Professionals from western countries often supervise local staff in mental health projects implemented in low-income and emergency-affected contexts. The work of these supervisors is always intercultural: it involves people from different cultural backgrounds. The supervisor has the responsibility to initiate and monitor these intercultural processes. The supervisor must be able to recognize differences within the supervision group and between supervisor and supervisee, and to question the values of any culture, including his/her own.

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Developing relevant knowledge and practical skills of psychosocial work and counselling

In many areasof armed conflict there is an urgent need for relevant knowledge and practical skills around mental health and psychosocial interventions. Knowledge developed at Western universities, or in Western practice, does not easily translate into practice in a non-western context. In this article, an approach to developing relevant knowledge and practical know-how is described that can be utilized within the context of a developing country. This approach also is useful when working with immigrants and refugees in a western context.

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