Search results for ‘Subject term:"traumas"’ Sort:
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Flight paths
- Author:
- FRIEND Bernadette
- Journal article citation:
- Health Service Journal, 3.6.99, 1999, pp.18-20.
- Publisher:
- Emap Healthcare
Reports on how health services have been gearing up to help refugees from Kosovo and are learning from experience how best to support often traumatised people.
Wartime faith-based reactions among traumatized Kosovar and Bosnian refugees in the United States
- Authors:
- AI Amy L., et al
- Journal article citation:
- Mental Health Religion and Culture, 8(4), December 2005, pp.291-308.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
- Place of publication:
- Philadelphia, USA
In William James' view, one function of prayer is a faith-based, conscious approach to a higher power when in distress. Accordingly, this study investigates the use of private prayer among Muslim war refugees from Kosovo and Bosnia. Results show that these refugees were highly traumatized and most counted on private prayer for coping with their wartime difficulties. Four major types of prayer familiar to Americans were employed by roughly two-thirds to 86% of this sample. As expected, most types of prayer were associated with both wartime traumatic distress and greater religiousness. Also, 77% used prayer so that their enemies would “pay for what they have done.” However, this type of prayer was predicted only by higher levels of education and not by religiousness or traumatization. The need for examining the general and specific social contexts of prayer, such as war and terror, and prayer itself, perceived as a common human experience, are discussed. A structural equation model indicated that war-related trauma was associated directly only with negative religious coping but indirectly with positive coping, mediated by levels of emotional distress. Religiousness was related directly only to positive coping. These findings are discussed with respect to their theoretical and clinical implications.
Mental health services for war-affected children: report of a survey in Kosovo
- Authors:
- JONES Lynne, et al
- Journal article citation:
- British Journal of Psychiatry, 183(12), December 2003, pp.540-546.
- Publisher:
- Cambridge University Press
In war-affected societies it is assumed that the major mental health problem facing the population will be stress reactions. The aim was to describe the creation of a child and adolescent mental health service (CAMHS) in Kosovo after the military conflict ended in 1999, and to establish the range of problems and diagnoses that presented. Data were collected on 559 patients over 2 years, including their referring problems and diagnoses. Stress-related disorders constituted only a fifth of the case-load in year 1. A substantial number of patients were symptom-free but attended because they had been exposed to a traumatic event, and believed it might make them ill. Non-organic enuresis and learning disability were the most common diagnoses in year 2. Many patients had a complex mix of social and psychological difficulties that did not fit conventional diagnostic categories. Mental health services that only address traumatic stress may fail to meet the needs of war-affected children. A comprehensive, culturally appropriate CAMHS is needed to address a wide range of problems including learning disability. It should be developed through local actors, and build on existing local infrastructure. Services can also have an educational role in 'depathologising' normative responses.