Reframing War Trauma

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Reframing War Trauma

• Incorporating a Community/Structural Approach to
  Frontline Healing Modalities
• Hamid Mousa Community Developer
• Ottawa Police Service
• Mignon Mildenberger MSW, RSW
• Hunt Club/Riverside Community Services Centre

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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

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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 Ottawas newcomer
  population, and particularly those who have been
  impacted by war trauma.

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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

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Purpose Of Initiative

• A progressive initiative should entertain the
  notion of a publicas 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

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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

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Organizational Barriers

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

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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

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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.

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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.

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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

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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

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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

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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?  

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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)

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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

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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

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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

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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 individuals
  relationship to a lost object or identity
• Whiting and James (2006)

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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

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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/so
cialwork/OnlineLibrary/Clemans,20200520A20fe
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
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References

• Womens Health Centre, St. Josephs 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
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  onf/papers/WHC.html
• Palmary, I (2005) Engendering Wartime Conflict
  Women and War Trauma. The Centre
• for War and Violence Studies. 1-72. Retrieved
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• Labonte, R. Social Exclusion and Health Dancing
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• of Health Canadian Perspectives. Ed. Raphael,
  D. Toronto Canadian Scholars Press Inc., 2004.
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• Psychosocial and Trauma Response in War-Torn
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• Psychosocial Notebook. Vol.1. Eds. C. Becker,
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