Towards a Framework for Culturally-Sensitive Psychosocial Interventions in the Population of Internally Displaced Sudanese
Neff, Brian
2008
- Submitted in partial fulfillment of the degree of Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. Abstract: The mental health effects of violence are, in the words of trauma research pioneer Richard Mollica, invisible wounds that until very recently have received tragically scant attention. Today, there is an emerging consensus in humanitarian and public health ... read morecircles that there can be no physical health without mental health. Distressingly, a recent Lancet series found widespread systematic, and long-term neglect of resources for mental health care in low-income and middle-income countries home to most of the 450 million currently suffering from mental problems meaning that help is out of reach for most of those who need it. What emerges from this reality is the need for humanitarian mental health interventions alongside other complex emergency interventions where a disaster- or violence-impacted population lacks adequate access to psychological care. In fact, mental health has become in the last fifteen years an increasingly integral component of some humanitarian relief programs. But a cadre of skeptics considers the application of Western psychological concepts particularly the model of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder to non-Western cultures both ethnocentric and arrogant, not to mention ineffectual and potentially harmful. It is true that even the best-intentioned psychosocial intervention, if poorly grounded in the local culture, can do more harm than good. But this does not mean that psychosocial interventions in complex emergencies are not ethically warranted when a population has little or no access to mental health care, and it does not mean that interventions cannot be made exceptionally culturally-sensitive, drawing on the expertise of local healers and staying loyal to the essence of what a particular community believes about wellness and illness, functionality and non-functionality, purpose and meaning, life and death. This paper seeks to contribute to making the case for culturally-sensitive psychosocial interventions in one especially traumatized population Sudans internally displaced. After contextualizing the countrys crisis of forced migration, surveying its anemic mental health services, and delving deeper into the psychological fallout of the displacement experience to solidify a moral imperative to intervene where there is nowhere for the traumatized to turn, it moves from theory to practice, investigating how mental health interventions in Sudan can be made culturally sensitive through deeper understanding of Sudanese conceptions and manifestations of mental distress. It serves as a practical guide for psychologists, psychiatrists, counselors, and other helping professionals who participate in internationally-led psychosocial programs in Sudans IDP camps.read less
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