Since the beginning of Al Aqsa Intifada, Palestinian children and adults living in the occupied Palestinian territory have been exposed to stressful events on a daily basis. As a result, some individuals develop severe and chronic reactive psychological syndromes. The nongovernmental organisation Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) provides medical and psychological support to them, using psychodynamic psychotherapy adapted to the Palestinian culture and to the low intensity conflict context.

For the international nongovernemental organisation, World Vision International, the Haiti earthquake response revealed a significant gap in materials and interventions that combined spiritual needs with the mental health and psychosocial support needs of affected communities. Despite growing scientific evidence that spirituality can have beneficial effects on mental health and psychosocial wellbeing, there is little guidance and consensus about psycho-spiritual approaches in humanitarian contexts.

This article critically discusses the use of movement, games and sport in cooperation for development, in post con£ict rehabilitation and in the context of violence, disaster and conflict. Pointing out the ambivalent nature of sport and its limitations, we conclude that, if we really want to achieve an impact through movement, games and sport, we should use them as tools with concrete strategies according to specific goals, local context and based on the interests, needs and leadership of the participants.

This article will explore a variety of stressors affecting humanitarian aid workers operating in an increasingly challenging environment and review structures for aid worker support. It will summarise the findings of a workplace stress survey conducted in 2009 by a large international aid organisation and provide a comparative analysis with the 2003 stress survey carried out within the same organisation.

Een zeilwedstrijd voor agenten die het één en ander hebben meegemaakt in hun carrière. Donderdag was de tweede Lemsterakenrace op het IJsselmeer.

De race wordt georganiseerd door de Stichting Waardering Erkenning Politie (WEP). Natuurlijk omdat het gewoon leuk is, maar vooral uit respect voor alles wat ze hebben gedaan.

In this paper, the reader is taken on a field trip to a village in the north of the West Bank. Events described in the report are used to explore some of the methodological dimensions of a psychosocial programme designed and implemented in joint partnership between a local Palestinian academic institution, the Institute of Community and Public Health of Birzeit University, and a Palestinian nongovernmental organisation the Community Based Rehabilitation programme.

In het kader van 70 jaar Bevrijding lanceert het Nationaal Comité 4 en 5 mei samen met het Nederlands Instituut voor Beeld en Geluid de gratis app Oorlogsmonumenten in Beeld.
Tegelijk lanceert het comité ook de interactieve site Tweedewereldoorlog.nl/70jaarbevrijding.

A rich set of reflections on experiences with the Inter Agency Standing Committee Mental Health and Psychosocial Support Guidelines in Emergency Settings has recently been published in this journal. This paper describes a case study of using the guidelines in Nepal, which focused primarily on detailed implementation of preparatory steps. In effect, it describes a multi-agency process of using the guidelines as a tool to raise awareness,foster coordination and systematically integrate mental health and psychosocial considerations within the humanitarian cluster approach in Nepal.

Violence and instability in Iraq have had highly detrimental effects upon Iraqi children and adolescents. This article summarises the magnitude of Child and Adolescent Mental Health (CAMH) problems, and the available services in a country suffering from severe and extended conflicts, war, and international isolation. Possible interventions to promote child and adolescent mental health are discussed, including feasible CAMH policy, mental health plans and strategies. Barriers to successful implementation of CAMH services are identified and possible solutions are suggested.

Children with disabilities are more vulnerable to violence, as well as more likely to experience psychosocial problems in situations of armed conflict than children with no disabilities. All children who live in conflict affected areas have the same rights to psychosocial support, as enshrined in the Convention on the Rights of the Child and in the case of disabled children, additionally the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. However, children with disabilities are often overlooked in psychosocial programmes.