Trauma Interventions in War and Peace: Prevention, Practice, and Policy

With traumatic stress an increasing global challenge, the U.N., the NGO community and governments must take into account the psychological aftermath of large-scale catastrophes and individual or group violence. Trauma Interventions in War and Peace is a volume created to address this global perspective, and as such it provides a conceptual framework for interventions in the wake of abuse, torture, war, and disaster on individual, local, regional, and international levels. To be useful to both practitioners and policy makers, the book identifies model programs that can be implemented at every level. These programs vary in target and intensity to include social policy, safety programs, public education, coordination, capacity building, training, self-help, counseling, and clinical intervention. A core group of chapters covers the general concepts of traumatic stress, intervention, and social deprivation, while others focus on specific traumatic events like refugees and child abuse in peacetime, each addressing the scope of the problem, reactions to the traumatic stressor, intervention issues, and recommendations. One whole chapter is devoted to caregiver reactions. Special features of the book are the integration of cultural, gender, poverty, and marginalization issues into each discussion, as well as the contributions of internationally noted academic and professional experts. U.N. and NGO personnel provided input and feedback on each chapter to provide the best working guidelines available for those responding to trauma around the world.

Lead editor Bonnie L. Green, PhD, is Professor of Psychiatry, and Director of Research and Trauma Studies, at Georgetown University Medical School in Washington, DC, where she teaches psychiatry residents and conducts research. She has studied the consequences of traumatic events, including disasters and war, for several decades. Her research at Georgetown has focused on the psychological and physical health consequences of individual traumas experienced by women, including breast cancer, traumatic bereavement, and interpersonal violence. Her recent research focus is the mental health needs of poor women with serious trauma histories who receive their health care in settings serving low-income patients. These include NIMH-funded treatment studies targeting depression or PTSD in primary care. In another NIMH grant, she is studying relationships between patients and providers, how these may be affected by the patient's trauma history and attachment style, and what supports providers might need to help manage patients with trauma-related mental health problems. She is also involved in developing educational and coping interventions for traumatized women in primary care in collaboration with community partners. Dr. Green is past Editor of the Journal of Traumatic Stress, and past President of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies.