Caring for Child Survivors of Sexual Abuse – Guidelines for health and psychosocial service providers in humanitarian settings
The guideline is based on global research on child sexual abuse and evidence from field practice. The CCS Resource Package brings a much needed comprehensive and practical approach to helping child survivors and their families
recover and heal from the impacts of sexual abuse.
https://gbvresponders.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/CCS-Guidelines-lowres.pdf
The Lancet Commission on global mental health and sustainable development
The Lancet Commission on Global Mental Health and Sustainable Development is a comprehensive synthesis of knowledge on global mental health, designed to catalyse worldwide action. It builds on the 2007 and 2011 The Lancet series on global mental health that helped make mental health care a greater priority worldwide. The ultimate goal of the Commission is to guide action to reduce the global burden of mental health problems. The Commission should give fresh impetus to the prioritisation of mental health, helping ensure physical and mental health are valued equally by the global health and development communities. The Commission has three unique guiding principles: – our approach to mental health covers the full spectrum of mental health from day-to-day wellness to long-term, disabling conditions. – mental health is the product of psychosocial, environmental, biological and genetic factors interacting with neurodevelopmental processes. – mental health should be respected as a fundamental right.
Mental Health Innovation Network (MHIN)
A community of mental health innovators – researchers, practitioners, policy-makers, service user advocates, and donors from around the world – sharing innovative resources and ideas to promote mental health and improve the lives of people with mental, neurological and substance use disorders. MHIN aims to facilitate the development and uptake of effective mental health interventions.
The Neuroscience of Trauma from Sexual Assault
A relatively new area of the literature on human response to trauma, particularly the trauma experienced during sexual violence, is that of tonic immobility. Defined as self-paralysis, or as the inability to move even when not forcibly restrained, tonic immobility has long been studied in non-human animals as the freeze response to extreme stress.
https://www.cogneurosociety.org/sexualassault_gigler_may15/
Why Rape and Trauma Survivors Have Fragmented and Incomplete Memories
In states of high stress, fear or terror like combat and sexual assault, the prefrontal cortex is impaired sometimes even effectively shut down by a surge of stress chemicals.
http://time.com/3625414/rape-trauma-brain-memory/
Sexual Assault & the Brain
Why are memories of sexual assault so often fragmentary and confusing? The answer has big implications for people who’ve been sexually assaulted, for those who investigate and prosecute such crimes, and for everyone else who knows or works with someone who’s been sexually assaulted.
https://www.jimhopper.com/sexual-assault-and-the-brain/
The Impact of Trauma on the Brain, Experience, Behavior and Memory
This article provides an introduction to the impact of trauma on memory and recollection, including how traumatic events may affect an individuals ability to recall or give proper sequence to details, including information that an objective observer (and even the victim/survivor/ complainant) would deem vital and seemingly unforgettable.
https://www.jimhopper.com/pdfs/Handout_for_Interviewers.pdf
Tonic immobility during sexual assault a common reaction predicting post-traumatic stress disorder and severe depression
Active resistance is considered to be the ‘normal’ reaction during rape. However, studies have indicated that similar to animals, humans exposed to extreme threat may react with a state of involuntary, temporary motor inhibition known as tonic immobility. The aim of the present study was to assess the occurrence of tonic immobility during rape and subsequent post-traumatic stress disorder and severe depression.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/aogs.13174/full
The contemporary refugee crisis: an overview of mental health challenges
This paper considers contemporary issues in the refugee mental health field, including developments in research, conceptual models, social and psychological interventions, and policy. Prevalence data yielded by cross sectional epidemiological studies do not allow a clear distinction to be made between situational forms of distress and frank mental disorder, a shortcoming that may be addressed by longitudinal studies (WPA).
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5428192/