Survivors of Mass Violence and Torture

Abstract

With traumatic stress an increasing global challenge, the U.N., the NGO community and governments must take into account the psychological aftermath of large-scale catastrophes and individual or group violence. Trauma Interventions in War and Peace is a volume created to address this global perspective, and as such it provides a conceptual framework for interventions in the wake of abuse, torture, war, and disaster on individual, local, regional, and international levels. To be useful to both practitioners and policy makers, the book identifies model programs that can be implemented at every level. These programs vary in target and intensity to include social policy, safety programs, public education, coordination, capacity building, training, self-help, counseling, and clinical intervention. A core group of chapters covers the general concepts of traumatic stress, intervention, and social deprivation, while others focus on specific traumatic events like refugees and child abuse in peacetime, each addressing the scope of the problem, reactions to the traumatic stressor, intervention issues, and recommendations. One whole chapter is devoted to caregiver reactions. Special features of the book are the integration of cultural, gender, poverty, and marginalization issues into each discussion, as well as the contributions of internationally noted academic and professional experts. U.N. and NGO personnel provided input and feedback on each chapter to provide the best working guidelines available for those responding to trauma around the world.