Building Back Better: Sustainable Mental Health Care after Emergencies
This WHO report shares detailed accounts from 10 diverse emergency-affected areas, each of which built better-quality and more sustainable mental health systems despite challenging circumstances. Cases originate from countries small to large; low to middle-income; across Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East; and affected by large-scale natural disasters, prolonged conflict, and large-scale influxes of refugees. While their contexts varied considerably, all were able to convert short-term interest in population mental health into sustainable, long-term improvements.
This WHO report goes beyond aspirational recommendations by providing detailed descriptions of how mental health reform was accomplished in these situations. Importantly, case contributors report not only their major achievements, but also their most difficult challenges and how they were overcome. Key overlapping practices emerging from these experiences are also summarized.
This report provides the proof of concept that it is possible to build back better, no matter how weak the existing mental health system or how challenging the emergency situation. I call upon all readers to take steps to ensure that those faced with future emergencies do not miss the important opportunity for mental health reform and development.
– Dr Margaret Chan, former Director-General WHO
Executive summary available in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish here.
https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/85377/9789241564571_eng.pdf?sequence=1
Afghanistan Burundi Global Indonesia Iraq Jordan Kosovo Somalia Sri Lanka Timor-Leste West Bank and Gaza Strip
Conflict related sexual violence: Report of the United Nations Secretary-General
“Conflict-related sexual violence is now widely recognized as a war crime that is preventable and punishable. The United Nations Security Council has played an important role in the past decade
by passing successive resolutions that emphasize accountability for perpetrators and services for survivors.”
– United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres
Afghanistan Bosnia and Herzegovina Burundi Central African Republic Colombia Côte d'Ivoire Democratic Republic of the Congo Iraq Libya Mali Myanmar Nepal Nigeria Somalia South Sudan Sri Lanka Sudan (Darfur) Syrian Arab Republic Yemen
We need the truth Enforced Disappearances in Asia
Enforced disappearances have been a well known to Sri Lanka before, during and the `post´ conflict scenario. However, from time to time we have had large scale disappearances becoming widely used since the 1980s onwards, connected to the politico-military situation and in local areas of the country.
http://www.simonrobins.com/ECAP-We%20need%20the%20Truth-Asia%20disappearances.pdf
Cambodia Indonesia Nepal Philippines Sri Lanka Thailand Timor-Leste
No More Missing Persons: The Criminalization of Enforced Disappearance in South Asia
This report analyzes States obligations under international law to ensure acts of enforced disappearance constitute a distinct, autonomous offence under national law. It also provides an overview of the practice of enforced disappearance, focusing specifically on the status of the criminalization of the practice, in five South Asian countries: India,Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal.
Participatory tools for evaluating psychosocial work with children in areas of armed conflict: in eastern Sri Lanka.
The article is based on the experiences of a recent pilot project to develop a participatory approach to the monitoring and evaluating of psychosocial interventions with children affected by armed conflict. Some of the main challenges encountered while utilizing these tools are discussed, along with the value of the data generated and the implications of using participatory methodologies for planning, monitoring and evaluation (Intervention 2007, Volume 5, Number 1).
https://psychotraumanet.org/sites/default/files/documents/int_081.pdf
The Mental Health of War Affected Children: a Community-based Rehabilitation and Reconciliation Program in Sri Lanka’s Eastern Province.
The mental health effects of children affected by militarized violence are receiving increasing attention as the magnitude of the problem worldwide and its implications is becoming recognized. The trends in child mental health in Sri Lanka related to war and other factors are reviewed, and local project context in Eastern Sri Lanka is described. Since 1995 research and program development in addresses psychological distress in schoolchildren from multiple factors, many directly war related.
https://www.humanities.mcmaster.ca/~peace_health/conferences/Conf2001/chasbush.pdf
What is a Psychosocial Intervention? Mapping the Field in Sri Lanka
The past decade has seen a steady growth in the number of initiatives in Sri Lanka that are described as being psychosocial interventions related to its long-standing ethnic conflict or other political violence. This seems to be the result of heightened global and local awareness of the psychological toll exacted by modern conflicts.
https://www.interventionjournal.com/content/what-psychological-intervention-mapping-field-sri-lanka
State Violence in Sri Lanka
This study is divided into three parts. Part I provides a general overview of torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment (in prisons in particular) committed by state officials. Parts II and III deal with torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of women and children respectively.
http://www.omct.org/files/2004/01/2444/stateviolence_srilanka_04_eng.pdf
Psychological trauma of the civil war in Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka’s ceasefire brokered by the Norwegian government 3 months ago has essentially held, bringing hope for the end of the country’s brutal 19-year civil war. The war between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, who have been fighting for an independent state in the north and east of the island, and the Sri Lankan government has resulted in more than 64 000 deaths and shattered the economy.
The mental health of war affected children: a community based rehabilitation and reconciliation programme in Sri Lanka’s eastern province
The mental health effects of children affected by militarized violence are receiving increasing attention as the magnitude of the problem worldwide and its implications is becoming recognized. The trends in child mental health in Sri Lanka related to war and other factors are reviewed, and local project context in Eastern Sri Lanka is described. Since (1995) research and program development in addresses psychological distress in schoolchildren from multiple factors, many directly war related. (17 pages, .pdf fro historical reference)
https://www.humanities.mcmaster.ca/~peace_health/conferences/Conf2001/chasbush.pdf