For optimal physical and cognitive development to occur, a child requires adequate nutrition, but this should occur in addition to physical and emotional stimulation from a caregiver. Programmes, in which interventions for nutrition, maternal mental health and psychosocial stimulation are integrated, provide much wider benefits to a child's psychical and cognitive development than stand alone nutritional responses.

Experiences with survivors of extreme violence demonstrate that treatments that focus exclusively on verbal expression are often insufficient. Furthermore, evidence has shown that art therapy, as an initially non-verbal therapy, has an important role to play in the treatment of people from a wide variety of cultural backgrounds. However, most of the evidence gathered to date is through work with refugees in the West. Therefore, this field report adds to the body of evidence through describing the application of art therapy, in daily practice, in areas affected by violence.

This paper describes an exploratory outcome evaluation of War Child Holland's psychosocial support intervention I DEAL, a life skills intervention aimed at improving the ability of children and young people affected by armed conflict in the Republic of South Sudan to ‘deal’ with their daily lives. The specific objectives were to assess whether I DEAL is consistent with local perceptions of wellbeing, and to explore the outcomes, as well as the factors that influence outcomes of this intervention.

The study presented here explores how the impact of the conflict, as it applies to interventions with young men, is conceptualised within the context of Northern Ireland after the signing of the peace agreement (1998). It focuses on four groups undertaking psychosocial work, that is, two generic support groups and two groups with an explicit focus on those who had experienced violence during the conflict. A total of 20 young men (18–24 years old) and 19 staff were individually interviewed, using a semi-structured interview.