Martz Trauma Rehabilitation After War and Conflict

Community and Individual Perspectives
1. Auflage 2010
ISBN: 978-1-4419-5722-1
Verlag: Springer US
Format: PDF
Kopierschutz: 1 - PDF Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 436 Seiten, eBook

"As foreign assistance flows into post-conflict regions to rebuild economies, roads, and schools, it is important that development professionals retain a focus on the purely human element of rebuilding lives and societies. This book provides perspective on just how to begin that process so that the trauma people suffered is not passed on to future generations long after the violence has stopped." - Amy T. Wilson, Ph.D., Gallaudet University, Washington, DC

"This ground-breaking text provides the reader with an excellent and comprehensive overview of the existing field of trauma rehabilitation. It also masterfully navigates the intricate relationships among theory, research, and practice leaving the reader with immense appreciation for its subject matter." - Hanoch Livneh, Hanoch Livneh, Ph.D., LPC, CRC, Portland State University
Fear, terror, helplessness, rage: for soldier and civilian alike, the psychological costs of war are staggering. And for those traumatized by chronic armed conflict, healing, recovery, and closure can seem like impossible goals.

Demonstrating wide-ranging knowledge of the vulnerabilities and resilience of war survivors, the collaborators on Trauma Rehabilitation after War and Conflict analyze successful rehabilitative processes and intervention programs in conflict-affected areas of the world. Its dual focus on individual and community healing builds on the concept of the protective "trauma membrane," a component crucial to coping and healing, to humanitarian efforts (though one which is often passed over in favor of rebuilding infrastructure), and to promoting and sustaining peace. The book’s multiple perspectives—including public health, community-based systems, and trauma-focused approaches—reflect the complex psychological, social, and emotional stresses faced by survivors, to provide authoritative information on salient topics suchas:



Psychological rehabilitation of U.S. veterans, non-Western ex-combatants, and civilians


Forgiveness and social reconciliation after armed conflict


Psychosocial adjustment in the post-war setting


Helping individuals heal from war-related rape


The psychological impact on prisoners of war


Rehabilitating the child soldier


Rehabilitation after War and Conflict lucidly sets out the terms for the next stage of humanitarian work, making it essential reading for researchers and professionals in psychology, social work, rehabilitation, counseling, and public health.

Zielgruppe

Research

Autoren/Hrsg.

Martz, Erin

Inhaltsverzeichnis

to Trauma Rehabilitation After War and Conflict.- Exploring the Trauma Membrane Concept.- Forgiveness and Reconciliation in Social Reconstruction After Trauma.- A Public-Health View on the Prevention of War and Its Consequences.- Community-Based Rehabilitation in Post-conflict and Emergency Situations.- A Systems Approach to Post-conflict Rehabilitation.- Human Physical Rehabilitation.- Psychological Rehabilitation for US Veterans.- Psychological Rehabilitation of Ex-combatants in Non-Western, Post-conflict Settings.- Psychosocial Rehabilitation of Civilians in Conflict-Affected Settings.- Shame and Avoidance in Trauma.- Psychosocial Adjustment and Coping in the Post-conflict Setting.- Helping Individuals Heal from Rape Connected to Conflict and/or War.- The Psychological Impact of Child Soldiering.- The Toll of War Captivity: Vulnerability, Resilience, and Premature Aging.- Trauma-Focused Public Mental-Health Interventions: A Paradigm Shift in Humanitarian Assistance and Aid Work.

Leseproben

"Chapter 9 Psychological Rehabilitation of Ex-combatants in Non-Western, Post-conflict Settings (p. 177-178)

Anna Maedl, Elisabeth Schauer, Michael Odenwald, and Thomas Elbert

Abstract Disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration (DDR) programs are part of most international peace-building efforts and post-conflict interventions in developing countries. Well over a million former combatants have participated in DDR programs in more than 20 countries, the vast majority of them in sub-Saharan Africa. The impact, however, has remained disappointing.

A significant portion of ex-combatants suffer from mental-health issues, caused by repeated exposure to severe psychological distress. Individuals with PTSD, depression, substance dependence, or psychotic conditions are heavily impaired in their daily functioning. It is often difficult for them to reintegrate into civilian society, and they are less able to support the process of reconciliation and peace-building within their communities and postwar areas at large. Others, who as child combatants adapted to a culture of violence and aggression, have never been taught the moral attitudes and the behavioral repertoire that are required in peaceful settings.

These failures to adjust fuel cycles of violence that might reach across generations. Psychological components of DDR programs are frequently neither suffi- ciently specific nor professional enough to address reintegration failure and the threat of continuing domestic or armed violence. This chapter presents examples from post-conflict settings, in which specific and targeted mental-health interventions and dissemination methods have been successfully evaluated, including Narrative Exposure Therapy and Interpersonal Therapy.

It suggests a comprehensive, community-based, DDR program, which offers mental-health treatment for affected individuals, as well as community interventions to facilitate reintegration and lasting peace. Introduction: Violent Conflicts on aWorldwide Scale Currently 34 large-scale armed conflicts and 3 wars are being fought worldwide (Harbom, Melander, & Wallensteen, 2008). Most of them can be found in non-Western countries, and 13 major wars were recorded in the last decade in Africa alone (Harbom & Wallensteen, 2008).

The type of warfare has profoundly changed since World War II. The so-called new wars (Kaldor, 2004) or ‘complex political emergencies’ (Ramsbotham &Woodhouse, 1999) mainly take place as internal con- flicts in non-developed countries. Warring factions largely rely on irregular forces, forced recruitments, and the use of fear and violence to gain control over the population and to maintain their power within their own fighting forces. Crimes against humanity, like mass rape, mutilations, and torture, are not an exception, but a deliberate strategy in this context. As a result, the social and economic bases of whole regions are completely destroyed and millions of people are displaced. The UNHCR (2008) estimates that by the end of 2007, about 42 million people had fled their homes from violent conflict."

Über Autor(innen)

Erin Martz, Ph.D., C.R.C., the editor of this book, was an associate professor of rehabilitation counseling at the University of Memphis until December 2009. Prior to that, she worked as an assistant professor of rehabilitation counseling at University of Missouri, Columbia. She co-edited a book with Dr. Hanoch Livneh, which was published in 2007, entitled Coping with chronic illness and disability: Theoretical, empirical, and clinical aspects. She received a Fulbright Research Fellowship for Russia from the U.S. Department of State in 2006 and a Switzer Merit Fellowship from the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research in 2001. Her research interests include the topics of disability and trauma, disability and employment, and international rehabilitation.