Reframing War Trauma

Incorporating a Community/Structural Approach to Frontline Healing Modalities

Hamid Mousa Community Developer Ottawa Police Service

Mignon Mildenberger MSW, RSWHunt Club/Riverside Community Services Centre

War Trauma Initiative An introduction…

Given the recent conflicts in various parts of the world and the fact that there is a large ethnic population in Ottawa with connections to areas affected, many community members are dealing with the stress of war trauma by re-living their own past, or by worrying about family members still living in the war zone

This is causing increased stress and anxiety and greatly affecting the family unit

War Trauma Initiative

Hunt Club/Riverside Community Services Centre, on behalf of an advisory group of Community Developers from the Coalition of Community Health and Resource Centres of Ottawa and the Arabic Speaking Service Providers Network, is pleased to have this opportunity to introduce an initiative that will serve to address the specific needs of Ottawa’s newcomer population, and particularly those who have been impacted by war trauma.

War Trauma Initiative What is it?

An innovative community project which defines the need for the creation of a holistic healing process

An initiative which addresses the specific needs of a newcomer population living in Canada and has been deployed by an advisory group from various community organizations

A progressive community initiative designed to build awareness of the psychosocial needs of individuals who are impacted by war trauma

Purpose Of Initiative

A progressive initiative should entertain the notion of a public…as well as a private aspect of mourning.

Whiting and James (2006)

What cannot be talked about cannot be put to rest. And if it is not, the wound will fester from generation to generation.

Yael Danieli, Clinical Psychologist

Organizational Barriers

Many not-or-profit organizations, including immigrant settlement agencies (ISA), face a variety of barriers to fully implementing change for most marginalized

Mainstream social service agencies have yet to enter into more enhanced and complex partnerships with ISA , share resources, extant strengths and social capital, in order to find holistic and sustainable ways to help newcomers to ‘grow’ into their community and sense of personal agency

Organizational Barriers

Traditional psychoanalytic models of bereavement theories tend to permeate social services, and indeed, most systemic or institutional helping processes

Our Changing Demographic

Currently 80% of immigrants come from the Middle East, Africa, Asia and the Pacific region.

Translated--the vast majority of immigrants are people of colour and are a principal source of labour force growth.

Canadian Labour Congress

Immigrant Contributions?

2005: Strategic Counsel conducts revealing survey.

The Issue: What is the public perception of the contribution immigrants make to Canada?

40% of those surveyed expressed the view that immigrants from some countries “make a bigger and better contribution than others.”

Color-coded perceptions

The breakdown is disturbing – almost 80% claim that European immigrants make a positive contribution

…with the number falling to 59% for Asians; 40% for East Indians; and plummeting to 33% for those from the Caribbean.

Reframing current processes…

Step-up outreach and integration initiatives with these communities

Improve linkage on key issues

Examine and eradicate systemic organization barriers

Canadian Labour Congress

Issues as we see them:

Recognition of internalized racism (understood as the acceptance of attitudes, beliefs or ideologies by members of stigmatized ethnic. racial groups, about the inferiority of their own group)--must become a critical factor in healing applications within most institutional arrangements

Issues as we see them:

The incorporation of ‘racism” as a social determinant of health, (in order to allow for a more critical understanding of its nature/influence)

At the same time, a necessary consideration of how current meaning/descriptions of ‘social determinants’ have been constructed within Canadian/north/western context

Issues as we see them:

How best to intervene with trauma and racism issues in frontline work (whether it be law enforcement, health care or social services), and considering multi-applications (e.g. alongside PTSD and general health and well being and health literacy issues)

  How do we move beyond the suffering of war trauma

and how do we address the confluence of war trauma with issues of systemic racism?  

Issues as we see them:

The issue of “forbidden trauma” where individuals or groups are unable to speak of their trauma in their present day communities--without a process or forum for testimony and witness, validation, or collectivation

  The critical need to develop relevant training, or

educational workshops (e.g. border and immigration officials)—and particularly if tied to health and well-being issues as a more easily accessible point of entry (during standardization/policy making)

Issues as we see them:

Further accessibility may occur also during specifically oriented mentoring programs, skills building or workshop training or staff building exercises/engagement

A Counseling Perspective

Helping processes must describe the way in which immigrants are faced with racist institutional and systemic societal practices in their new home...

...While at the same time decrying the need for the application of a psychosocial or community approach to healing and amelioration of individual well-being

A Counseling Perspective

The literature surrounding restorative justice and reconciliation processes continues to expand its reference to ‘cultural bereavement’ and ‘betrayal trauma’ and, in fact, the tremendous variance of the effects of all traumas

A Counseling Perspective

An innovative approach to holistic helping speaks to the impact of a range of factors and diversity variables, often not addressed in conventional clinical counseling practice and theory--factors such as family, personality and cultural background, and the nature of an individual’s relationship to a lost object or identity

Whiting and James (2006)

New Hope

“The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness”

Barack Obama

References

Clemans, S. (2005). A Feminist Group for Women Rape Survivors. Social Work with

Groups. 28(2). 59-64. Retrieved from http://ww2.olc.edu/jolson/socialwork/OnlineLibrary/Clemans,%202005;%20A%20fe

Labonte, R. “Social Exclusion and Health: Dancing the Dialectic.” Social Determinants

of Health: Canadian Perspectives. Ed. Raphael, D. Toronto: Canadian Scholars’ Press Inc., 2004. 253-265.

Mitchell, A., & Shillington, R. (2002). Poverty, Inequality and Social Inclusion. The Laidlaw Foundation Working Paper Series. Retrieved from www.laidlawfdn.org.

Omidvar. R. & Richmond, T. (2003). Immigrant Settlement and Social Inclusion in Canada. The

Laidlaw Foundation Working Paper Series. Retrieved from www.laidlawfdn.org

References

Women’s Health Centre, St. Joseph’s Health Centre. Counseling Across Difference: Models of Intervention to Women in a Multicultural Context. Eds. Priego, A., Mancewicz, G., Ponic, B., Chan,C.2005 Retrieved from http://www.oise.utoronto.ca/depts/aecdcp/CMPConf/papers/WHC.html

Palmary, I (2005) Engendering Wartime Conflict: Women and War Trauma. The Centre for War and Violence Studies. 1-72. Retrieved from http://www.idrc.ca/uploads/user-S/11558421111Women_and_war_trauma.pdf

Labonte, R. “Social Exclusion and Health: Dancing the Dialectic.” Social Determinants of Health: Canadian Perspectives. Ed. Raphael, D. Toronto: Canadian Scholars’ Press Inc., 2004. 253-265.

Psychosocial and Trauma Response in War-Torn Societies: The Case of Kosovo. Psychosocial Notebook. Vol.1. Eds. C. Becker, C. Pillon (200O). The International Organization for Migration. Retrieved from http://w ww. forcedmig ration. org/psychosocial/papers/Wider Papers/iom_ notebook

Psychosocial and Trauma Response in War-Torn Societies: Supporting Traumatized Communities Through Arts and Theatre.Psychosocial Notebook. Vol.3. Eds. M. Losi, S. Reisner and S. Salvatici (2003). The International Organization for Migration. Retrieved from http:// www. Forced migration. org/psychosocial/ papers/WiderPapers/iom_notebook