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Intervention Journal is now available as iPad app! Intervention, the International Journal of Mental Health, Psychosocial Work and Counselling in Areas of Armed Conflict is now also available as an iPad app! Just go to the Apple App Store, search for "Intervention" and download the free app. War Trauma Foundation is very interested in your reaction on this iPad version of Intervention and invites you to fill in the questionnaire in the latest iPad edition. Intervention volume 10.3 is free with the iPad app. Volume 11: Number 1 (March 2013) "Changes in Approach" - the first decade of Intervention Journal War Trauma Foundation is proud to present the second of two anniversary specials, a special issue which looks at how the journal explores and introduces novel approaches and concepts in the field of mental health and psychosocial support in areas of armed conflict or disaster, and initiates or advances the debate around unresolved or controversial issues in the field. Peer reviewed articles A primer on single session therapy and its potential application in humanitarian situations Karen Elizabeth Paul & Mark van Ommeren Helping a client in one session? Within the chaotic and rapidly changing context of an acute emergency, the first session between a mental health and psychosocial support (MPHSS) worker and a client may also be the last. The client may live far from where aid can be provided, and/or the client or aid-provider may be relocated at any moment. Under such conditions, what kind of psychological support can be given? No end in sight: moving towards a social justice framework for mental health in continuous conflict settings Shireen Tawil In a radical, conceptual analysis Shireen Tawil critiques the use of a trauma lens to view clients in the occupied Palestinian territory, for the very reason that it contributes to divorcing Palestinianmental distress from the political situation, in which it occurs. She provides powerful and persuasive arguments for her thesis, yet we are also aware that some readers will not be convinced of the viability of the alternative that Tawil proposes. Her proposal: ecological mental health care, based on a social-justice model that would not treat symptoms, but targets sociopolitical issues as the cause of distress. Therapeutic photography: fostering posttraumatic growth in Shan adolescent refugees in northern Thailand Hillary Prag & Gwen Vogel Prag and Vogel report on the use of therapeutic photography with young Burmese refugees in Thailand. The aim of the workshops they organised was to focus on fostering posttraumatic growth, and less on ‘symptom reduction’, which would require other techniques. This small project demonstrates that therapeutic photography can provide an aid to assist the participants, in this case refugee adolescents, to make a coherent social narrative of their life and their experiences. While the anecdotal results are quite promising, clearly, more research in this field is needed. The first decade of Intervention: facts, figures & trends Simon van den Berg, Grace Akello & Shobna Sonpar Analysis of the location of the authors in Intervention. Approximately 36% of the authors were from Africa, Asia (including the Middle East), Latin America and Eastern Europe. For articles in the peer-reviewed section, this figure was 27.5%. Are these figures high or low? For the journal, it shows us where we need to work a bit harder. However, we should also acknowledge that the representation of authors from LMIC in Intervention is considerably higher than in other, ‘mainstream’ journals on psychology and psychiatry. In general, in those journals, less than 10% of published papers were authored by researchers living and working in LMIC (Patel, 2007; Saxena et al., 2006). It is, in fact, no surprise that the majority of authors represented in Intervention reside in high income countries. After all, this is where the majority of research institutes and universities are located, as well as international staff of humanitarian organisations, and indeed, where Intervention itself is based. However, we must also acknowledge, that several authors who were born and raised in low income countries were actually included in the group of authors from high income countries because they currently reside in the United States, Western Europe or Australia. This is primarily a result of either participating in further education, or being employed at offices of international organisations. Field reports Lay counselling in humanitarian organisations: a field report on developing training materials for lay counsellors Barbara Juen, Heidi Siller, Michael Lindenthal, Leslie Snider, Marie Nielsen, Marie Louise Muff & Nana Wiedemann The authors describe how they developed training materials for lay counsellors in humanitarian organisations. While the primary target of their work were lay counsellors in European settings, they believe the developed work also has significance for low resource areas, where MHPSS professionals are scarce, and the use of lay counsellors may be one of the few viable options for people to receive (para)professional support. Does attention to psychological trauma divert attention from underlying structural causes? Syrian mental health professionals as refugees in Jordan: establishing mental health services for fellow refugees Mohammad Abo-Hilal & Mathijs Hoogstad A field report from Mohammad Abo-Hilal & Mathijs Hoogstad, a Syrian psychiatrist and a Dutch psychologist, who describe how Syrian mental health professionals who recently fled the country, are struggling to establish mental health and psychosocial services for fellow refugees in Jordan. Personal reflection Mental health work with people affected by state terrorism in Uruguay: a personal reflection on 25 years work Celia Maria Robaina A psychologist from Uruguay, Celia Maria Robaina shares an overview of 25 years of working with survivors of torture. Being trained in traditional, individual psychotherapeutic (psychoanalytic) approaches, she found that in order to work effectively with survivors of state sponsored violence, she also needed to be socially and politically engaged. |