Experiences of forced mothers in northern Uganda: the legacy of war

From 1986–2007, the Lord's Resistance Army inflicted severe suffering on civilians in northern Uganda through indiscriminate killing and child abductions. While both abducted boys and girls were trained to use arms, girls were commonly distributed among commanders as forced ‘wives’. These traumatised girls and young women (both pregnant and ‘forced mothers’) were retained in rehabilitation centres longer than any other ex-combatants.

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Child friendly spaces: a systematic review of the current evidence base on outcomes and impact

Child friendly spaces are widely used in emergencies as a mechanism for protecting children from risk, as a means of promoting children's psychosocial wellbeing, and as a foundation for strengthening capacities within communities for child protection. A systematic review of published and ‘grey’ literature identified 10 studies that met specified inclusion criteria. Each study was reviewed with respect to the potential protective, promotive, and mobilising impacts of the intervention.

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Syrian mental health professionals as refugees in Jordan: establishing mental health services for fellow refugees

While the conflict in Syria rages on, one psychiatrist and several psychologists, all of them Syrian refugees, have founded ‘Syria Bright Future’, a volunteer organisation that provides psychosocial and mental health services to Syrian refugees in Jordan. This field report describes how the organisation assists families in settling after their harsh journey, in adapting to new living conditions and circumstances, coping with difficulties they encounter and strengthening their resilience.

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Lay counselling in humanitarian organisations: a field report on developing training materials for lay counsellors

Lay counsellors provide valuable psychosocial support in many different circumstances, such as manning telephone helplines for cancer patients, assisting people after crisis events or giving focused support to refugees or other vulnerable groups. This paper describes the process that a consortium of four humanitarian organisations followed to develop a training guide for lay counsellors as it was found that no common training curriculum existed.

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The first decade of Intervention: facts, figures and trends

This paper aims to explore trends in developments in content and authors’ locations and perspectives in ‘Intervention, the International Journal of Mental Health, Psychosocial Work and Counselling in Areas of Armed Conflict’, from 2003 to 2012. Over this 10 year period, Intervention has published 139 peer reviewed articles, 73 field reports, 36 book reviews and 33 debate papers. The articles cover academic expertise, practical experience and debates on mental health and psychosocial interventions in the aftermath of both natural, and manmade, disasters.

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Therapeutic photography: fostering posttraumatic growth in Shan adolescent refugees in northern Thailand

Recent reviews of therapeutic photography have identified the technique's unique ability to transcend culture and language, both essential characteristics of international trauma therapy. This article describes a process, through which youth identified changes in self-perception after a photojournalism workshop, using an interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA) approach and conducted in a Shan migrant community centre in northern Thailand.

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No end in sight: moving towards a social justice framework for mental health in continuous conflict settings

The occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) exemplifies a situation of continuous, protracted violence and conflict. This paper explores the application of the concept of posttraumatic stress disorder to this situation of ongoing violence. It argues that using an individualised perspective ‘through a trauma lens’, may not be the most appropriate approach to Palestinian distress, but that a model based on the concept of ‘social suffering’ may be a more holistic fit, exploring how individual and collective human suffering is associated with life conditions shaped by powerful social forces.

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A primer on single session therapy and its potential application in humanitarian situations

Single session therapy is a specific form of therapy conducted by professionals who seek to use their existing skill sets and knowledge base to address clients’ presenting concerns, within one session. The session takes place with the understanding that the session might be the only one. Such single session services are currently expanding in a number of high income countries. This paper calls attention to this therapy for potential adaptation to acute emergency settings, in low and middle income countries, where offering one session may be the only option.

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Psychological first aid: Facilitator’s manual for orienting field workers

 

WHO Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

Psychological first aid: Facilitator’s manual for orienting field workers.

l.Crisis intervention - methods. 2.Disasters. 3.Emergency medical services - personnel. 4.Adaptation, Psychological. 5.First aid - psychology. 6.Stress disorders, Traumatic - psychology. 7.Health personnel - education. I.World Health Organization. Il.War Trauma Foundation. III.World Vision International.

ISBN 978 92 4 154861 8    (NLM classification: WM 401)

© World Health Organization 2013

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Treatment of sexual trauma dissolves contamination fear: case report

Background
In patients with co-morbid obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), repetitive behavior patterns, rituals, and compulsions may ward off anxiety and often function as a coping strategy to control reminders of traumatic events. Therefore, addressing the traumatic event may be crucial for successful treatment of these symptoms.
Objective
In this case report, we describe a patient with comorbid OCD and PTSD who underwent pharmacotherapy and psychotherapy.
Methods

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Pages