WORKSHOP 6: Children and the Family of <strong>Torture</strong><strong>Survivors</strong>(Thursday Dec 4 Afternoon)To promote a meaningful and mental health promoting context for childrenand the family of torture survivorsInvited lecturerSolvig Ekblad, PhD, Associate Professor,Stress Research <strong>Institute</strong>, Stockholm University and affiliated at Karolinska <strong>Institute</strong>t,Stockholm, SwedenAdverse pre-settlement trauma exposure and resettlement stress factorsamong newcomers are related to increased risks not only for morbidity andmortality but also of health risk life style behaviour, illness and functional impairment.Four dimensions of resettlement stress among adult refugees fromMiddle East have been found; social and economic strain, alienation, discriminationand status loss and violence and threats in Sweden (Lindencrona, Ekblad,Hauff, 2008). According to Harvard Program in Refugee Trauma, the best medication(anti-depressant) for people who have been exposed to violence is a job.Social and economic strain and alienation are important for explaining symptomsof common mental disorder. A person's capacity to handle stress playssignificant roles. Sweden like many countries, have implemented introductionrefugee programs, ie setting for health, with the aim at reducing inequality inimportant living conditions between the target group and the native Swedes.The literature shows the importance of limitation of stressors and treatmentwhen needed among refugees with traumatic experiences and posttraumaticstress, which otherwise increase the risk of failure in the reception program.PTSD is not the only outcome of importance. Anger maybe also a significantproblem in the resettlement context.The presentation will take up an ecological adaptive model with focus on fiveimportant health areas: attachment, security, identity/roles, justice/humanrights and existential/meaning (Silove, 1999). Psychological and social stabilityare mirror images (interconnected psychic and social pillars), safety and feltsecurity (PTSD), attachment and bounds, networks and communities (sense ofbelonging, grief), justice (treated fairly and with dignity, anger), identity andrules (being valued and useful, belonging, marginalisation), meaning and coherence(making sense social, political, cultural, religious, political, alienation).The significance of this model will be discussed in two studies; one focusing onpsycho-educative mental health promotion classes for new-coming refugees(Ekblad, 2008) and the second on how to approach vulnerable refugee childrenby using photographs to establish dialogue about everyday life (Svensson, Ekbladand Ascher, in press). Focusing on a holistic mental health promotion andpsycho-educative approach will empower the family of torture survivors andtheir children. In view of human right to health, such interventions need to beevaluated in further studies.36
ReferencesSvensson, M., Ekblad, S., Ascher, H. Making Meaningful Space for Oneself:Photo-based dialogue with Siblings of Refugee Children with Severe WithdrawalSymptoms. Children’s Geographies (accept 2008-10-03, in press).Ekblad, S. A health promotion course as a mental health promotion interventionamong new-coming refugees in the reception programme at a symposium“Follow-up studies of migrant and refugee populations”, chair: Edvard Hauff,Norway and co-chair: Marianne Kastrup, Denmark) for World Congress of Psychiatry;Prague; 19-25 Sep 2008Lindencrona, F., Ekblad, S., Hauff, E. Mental health of recently resettled refugeesfrom the Middle East in Sweden: the impact of pre-resettlement trauma,resettlement stress and capacity to handle stress. Social Psychiatry and PsychiatricEpidemiology 2008:43(2):121-131.Silove, D. The Psychosocial Effects of <strong>Torture</strong>, Mass Human Rights Violationsand Refugee Trauma – Toward an Integrated Conceptual Framework. Journal ofNervous and Mental Disease 1999:187(4):200-207.37
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