DVD: Surviving War, Surviving Peace 30 minutes

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DVD Surviving War, Surviving Peace (30 minutes)

• A training video for service providers working
  with refugee youth in resettlement context.
• This film highlights the struggles of refugee
  youth in Australia including the challenges of
  acculturation (learning a new language, racism,
  and the search for belonging). The youth featured
  in the film were co-producers, and they provide
  advice on how they would like others to treat
  refugee youth.

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Readings

• Mollica RF, Son L (1989). Cultural Dimensions in
  the Evaluation and Treatment of Sexual Trauma.
  Psychiatric Clinics of North America, 12(2),
  363-379.
• Simalchik, J. (2002). The politics of torture
  dispelling the myths and understanding the
  survivors.
• Gorman, W. (2001). Refugee survivors of torture
  Trauma and treatment. Professional Psychology
  Research and Practice, 32, 443-451.
• de Jong JP, Scholte WF, Koeter MWJ, Hart AAM
  (2000). The Prevalence of Mental Health Problems
  in Rwandan and Burundese Refugee Camps. Acta
  Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 102 (3), 171-177
• Bolton P (2001). Local Perceptions of the Mental
  Health Effects of the Rwandan Genocide. The
  Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 189(4),
  243-248.

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Day 2 Overview

• 1. Goals of interventions
• 2. Women and Violence/SGBV
• 3. Definition of trauma Massive Community
  Violence/ Collective trauma
• 4. Rwandan women post genocide case studies
• 5. Political Torture and Sexual Violence
• 6. Palestinian man (torture survivor) case study
• 7. Traditional healers and alternative healing
  frameworks
• (PTSD and cultural bereavement to start or
  rollover to Day 3)

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Goals of Interventions

• What is it that psychosocial interventions are
  trying to achieve?

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Broad Goals of Any Intervention

• 1. Increase protective factors/ decrease risk
  factors
• 2. Increase resilience and coping skills (ability
  to bounce back from future difficulties).
• 3. Increase ability to function in daily
  activities/ reduce functional impairment (related
  to achieving personal goals)
• 4. Increase self-reported feeling of well-being/
  decrease subjective distress/ reduce troublesome
  symptoms.

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In order to achieve these goals

• One must
• 1. Understand personal definitions and
  expressions of (subjective) distress (local
  idioms)
• 2. Inventory existing and absent protective
  factors and coping skills
• 3. Understand the individual in psychosocial
  context (ie- the impact of the social environment
  on the individual and vice versa).

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Most importantly

• You must determine jointly with the client(s)
  what success or improvement will look like in
  their particular case in order to determine if
  the interventions have been successful or not
• How will you measure success and avoid the
  desire to assume effectiveness of interventions
  in the presence of evidence to the contrary?

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Psychosocial Interventions encompass a wide range
of diverse options and can include

• Witnessing/ empathic listening
• Promoting access to justice
• Traditional ceremonies/ involvement of
  traditional healers or spiritual advisors
• Counseling/therapy (individual, family, group or
  community level cognitive, behavioral, etc.)
• Use of the arts (drama, art, personal narrative,
  etc)

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Examples of psychosocial interventions (cont)

• (Referral for) psychotropic medication
• Conflict resolution dialogue
• Job referral/ employment support
• Promoting access to educational opportunities
• Sports activities
• Community-level awareness raising, etc.