The Pave Project Report - Queen's University Belfast

The PAVE Project Report 205
depression. These findings were corroborated by the interviews, which confirmed the
helpfulness and philanthropic utility of these services.
However, with regard to trauma recovery the evidence was not convincing as the
majority of services did not seem to be effective in lowering levels of PTSD symptom
severity. A number of reasons can be responsible for this finding. First, in the
psychological literature, the concept of PTSD is not without contention (Kutchins, &
Kirk, 1999). Therefore, it is entirely possible that PTSD is not the appropriate
classification for individuals who were traumatized by events that happened many
years ago. On the other hand, it is possible that due to the lack of appropriate support
at the time of the trauma, these people have become chronically traumatized and need
much more professional input in order to ‘recover’.