Psychosocial interventions – training manual
This training workshop module intended as a guide to train people in how to respond to the psychosocial effects of disasters. It aims to help psycho-social program administrators and trainers to give training to their staff in understanding how disasters affect children and adults, how people cope with the emotional effects of disasters and how one can facilitate community’s natural recovery process. It also aims to equip them with basics of psychosocial intervention and communication skills aimed at reducing distress, improving adaptive functioning in the face of the practical and emotional demands created by the disaster, and preventing longer-term disability.
http://resourcecentre.savethechildren.se/sites/default/files/documents/2367.pdf
The Colombian conflict: a description of a mental health program
Colombia has been seriously affected by an internal armed conflict for more than 40 years affecting mainly the civilian population, who is forced to displace, suffers kidnapping, extortion, threats and assassinations. Between 2005 and 2008, Médecins Sans Frontières-France provided psychological care and treatment in the region of Tolima, a strategic place in the armed conflict. The mental health program was based on a short-term multi-faceted treatment developed according to the psychological and psychosomatic needs of the population. Here we describe the population attending during 2005-2008, in both urban and rural settings, as well as the psychological treatment provided during this period and its outcomes.
http://fieldresearch.msf.org/msf/bitstream/10144/98773/1/Grais%20Conf%20Health%20Colombia.pdf
Counselling Afghanistan Torture and Trauma Survivors
The development of services to meet the needs of Afghan refugees, most of whom are traumatised by years of war and internecine violence, requires a sophisticated blend of counselling strategies and culturally-informed pragmatism. This article outlines the approach that Mehraby has found most useful in dealing with this extraordinary client population (10 pages).
http://www.startts.org.au/media/Research-Doc-Counselling-Afghan-Survivors-of-TT.pdf
Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies
A global transdisciplinary network and fellowship of concerned academics and practitioners. They wish to stimulate systemic change, globally and locally, to open space for equality in dignity and mutual respect and esteem to take root and grow, thus ending humiliating practices and breaking cycles of humiliation throughout the world.
http://www.humiliationstudies.org/index.php
Guidelines for prevention and response; Sexual and gender-based violence against refugees, returnees and internally displaced persons.
These Guidelines offer practical advice on how to design strategies and carry out activities aimed at preventing and responding to sexual and gender-based violence. They also contain information on basic health, legal, security and human rights issues relevant to those strategies and activities (168 pages).
http://www.unicef.org/emerg/files/gl_sgbv03.pdf
Survivors of war in the Northern Kosovo (II): baseline clinical and functional assessment and lasting effects on the health of a vulnerable population
This study documents torture and injury experience and investigates emotional well-being of victims of massive violence identified during a household survey in Mitrovicë district in Kosovo. The victims reported a high prevalence of severe pain and emotional disturbance. They showed high BMI and a reduced level of physical fitness.
http://www.conflictandhealth.com/content/pdf/1752-1505-4-16.pdf
Support for TortureVictims
The primary objective of the “Support for TortureVictims” association and the individual outpatient clinics is to help refugee victims of torture and war overcome their traumatic experiences, thus enabling them to regain control of their life.
Disabilities among Refugees and Conflict-Affected Populations
Reveals a disparity between refugee camps and urban areas: in camps there is a greater awareness about the needs of the disabled and better services than in urban environments, where refugees with disabilities are unable to access services offered by the host government and virtually no one is providing special assistance to them. The Women’s Refugee Commission also found greater discrimination and stigmatization towards the mentally disabled population; assistance programs, when available, tend to focus on those with physical and sensory disabilities.
Rehabilitation as a form of reparation under International law
The Basic Principles and Guidelines on the Right to a Remedy and Reparations for Victims of Gross Violations of International Human Rights Law and Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law (Basic Principles) further clarify this right. These Principles indicate the types of reparation that may be needed, depending on the particular circumstances of the case, to afford adequate and effective reparation to victims, explicitly recognising five forms of reparation for such violations: restitution, compensation, rehabilitation, satisfaction and guarantees of non-repetition.
http://www.redress.org/downloads/publications/The%20right%20to%20rehabilitation.pdf
Where there is no Psychiatrist
Attitudes towards mental illness have changed, with more people coming forward for treatment. Despite this positive development, access to mental health care in low-income countries is still extremely poor and there is a serious shortage of mental health care workers. However, most of these countries have large numbers of community workers who could be deployed to deliver mental health care if they had the necessary knowledge and skills. Where there is no Psychiatrist might go some way in Providing such knowledge and skills.
http://www.asksource.info/pdf/30256_wherethereisnopsych_ch1_2003.pdf