Help the people to help themselves': UNRRA relief workers and European displaced persons

This article aims to explore the practices relief workers employed in their efforts to rehabilitate refugees in postwar Europe. It argues that the objectives and methods UNRRA's officers adopted to manage the phenomenon of mass displacement drew on a longer tradition of humanitarianism. Furthermore, these methods took shape as a result of the different ways staff in the field interpreted the organization's mandate. The article looks at UNRRA's aspirations to transform international relief into a modern profession, and analyses the obstacles that stood in the way of this endeavour.

Read more

Family violence and mental health in adolescence: complex trauma as a developmental disorder

AIM: To highlight the harmfulness and pervasive of early and repeated exposure to family violence from the theoretical perspective of complex trauma as a developmental disorder. METHOD: A study carried out on a sample of 22 adolescents between the ages of 15 and 18, who have been entrusted to Il Faro Bologna, a Specialist Centre for child abuse and neglect. Specific areas of psychological functioning were examined. According to the NCTSN these areas are considered vulnerable to violence in primary relationships and crucial for future mental health.

Read more

Gender Differences in the Maintenance of Response to Cognitive Behavior Therapy for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

Objective: To examine potential differential responses in men and women to cognitive behavior therapy for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Method: Fifty-two men and 56 women diagnosed with PTSD participated in randomized controlled trials of cognitive behavior therapy for PTSD. Participants were randomly allocated to either (a) exposure-only therapy (Ex) or (b) exposure-based treatment combined with cognitive restructuring (ExCR). Results: There were no significant differences between men and women in treatment response immediately after treatment in either Ex or ExCR.

Read more

Explanatory Models And Mental Health Treatment: Is Vodou an Obstacle to Psychiatric Treatment in Rural Haiti?

Vodou as an explanatory framework for illness has been considered an impediment to biomedical psychiatric treatment in rural Haiti by some scholars and Haitian professionals. According to this perspective, attribution of mental illness to supernatural possession drives individuals to seek care from houngan-s (Vodou priests) and other folk practitioners, rather than physicians, psychologists, or psychiatrists.

Read more

Empowerment as a tool for a healthy resettlement: a case of new African settlers in South Australia

The purpose of this paper is to describe the application of empowerment and the role that it plays in fostering community participation, community integration and in enabling a healthy re-settlement of culturally and linguistically diverse migrants who have recently arrived in Australia from Sub Saharan Africa.

Read more

Engaging with violent Islamic extremism : local policies in western European cities

The terrorist attacks at the start of the new millennium shook the world. In Western countries, the new threat of ‘home-grown’ Islamic terrorism has directed the authorities’ attention towards local Muslim communities. Islamic terrorism is generally seen as a sign of the lack of integration of these communities. Authorities therefore often opt for preventive policies in which the engagement with Muslim organisations and spokespersons plays a significant role. However, this engagement comes with its own problems and dilemmas.

Read more

Entangled or 'extruded' Histories? Displacement, national refugees, and repatriation after the Second World War

This article uses 'national refugees' in Italy after 1945 as a starting point for broader reflections on the classifications of displaced persons (DPs) employed in both international refugee law and historical accounts of the refugee in the postwar world. After 1945, Italy became temporary home to many persons displaced by the war and the consolidation of socialist regimes in Eastern Europe. At the same time, Italy had its own refugees forced to leave territories (including African colonies) lost with the collapse of fascism.

Read more

EMDR therapy and adjunct approaches with children : complex trauma, attachment, and dissociation

This book offers developmentally appropriate advanced tools for using EMDR therapy with children with complex trauma, attachment wounds, dissociative tendencies and compromised social engagement. The feature of this book is the use of strategies from other therapeutic approaches into a comprehensive EMDR treatment such as: Play Therapy, Sandtray Therapy, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy (SP), Theraplay and Internal Family Systems (IFS) Therapy.

Read more

EMDR therapy: An overview of current and future research

IntroductionEMDR therapy is an eight-phase treatment approach widely recognized as a frontline treatment for trauma. Research over the past decade has addressed the utility of the eye movements, mechanism of action and comparisons with other forms of therapy.Literature and clinical findingsMore than two-dozen randomized controlled trials (RCT) demonstrate the positive effects of EMDR therapy with trauma victims. Comparisons with trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy (TF-CBT) indicate comparable effects sizes.

Read more

Duration of assertive community treatment and the interpretation of routine outcome data

Objective: Statistical inferences based on routine outcome monitoring data are susceptible to biases. Because this process may be influenced by differences in attrition and treatment duration, we wished to gain an insight into the relationship between treatment duration and clinical outcome. Method: We enrolled 569 assertive community treatment (ACT) team patients.

Read more

Pages