ARTICLES

This article describes a therapeutic training course suitable for traumatised adolescent refugees, aimed at coping with nightmares. The training connects directly with the complaints and symptoms of these refugees. As a result they feel less helpless. Sometimes this training becomes a point of departure for therapy during which traumatic experiences are discussed.

This paper describes an instrument for the monitoring and evaluation of programs designed to improve the psychosocial well being of children: the Community Participatory Evaluation Tool (CPET). The community plays an important role when the evaluation tool is properly utilised. The rationale for use of the tool is explained, and its application in practice is illustrated with a case study.

This article describes a study on the impact of war on Eritrean children living in an internally displaced persons camp in the Gash Barka region. It is based on a psychosocial needs assessment conducted within the framework of a psychosocial project by the Dutch non-governmental organisation (NGO) ‘War Child’. Key research questions used included; the nature of the traumatic experiences of the children, the prevalence of psychosocial problems, and the need for therapeutic intervention.

In this article, war experiences, psychological symptoms, post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptomatology, and the physical and sexual abuses of formerly abducted girls in Northern Uganda were assessed. In a cross-sectional self-report design, questionnaires were administered to 123 formerly abducted girls. Data originating from records at three rehabilitation centres were analysed.

In this pilot study we tested whether Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and/or major depression inhibits psychosocial adaptation in refugees. We tested a group of sixty-three refugees from the former Yugoslavia prior to and following attendance at a group family in cultural transition (FICT) program. The tests studied were for the presence PTSD, depression, and psychosocial functioning.

Ten years after war and genocide in Rwanda took almost a million lives; trauma still exists on a large scale. This is especially true amongst adolescents where it hampers the process of reconciliation. As a result, crisis outbreaks frequently occur at secondary

The authors describe a programme for victims of war structured around day care treatment that takes into account the need of patients for structure and at the same time makes it possible for them to re-experience the trauma. This programme consists of a combination of a storytelling group and art therapy.

The term ‘counselling’ is often used to describe psychosocial interventions. The concept appears to have different meanings to different people. In this contribution to this journal, we will describe an attempt to introduce a classical type of counselling, ‘individual talk-therapy’, in a psychosocial and mental health program in Cambodia. We use this example to explore two different aspects. First, we show how talk-therapy can be effective in a cross-cultural setting.

In this article the role of evaluation in Narrative Theatre (NT) is addressed with specific reference to participatory evaluation in exploring the effectiveness of narrative theatre training of psychosocial workers. It is argued that participatory evaluation is not only essential, in that the findings feed back into the ongoing training process, but that the process of reflection is an integral part of the broader aims of Narrative Theatre i.e., social transformation.