Le Learnin ings of f a Psychosocia ial l Approach when work - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Le Learnin ings of f a Psychosocia ial l Approach when work rkin ing with ith Tort rture Vict ictim ims

Heal ealin ing in in Exile

• ile. QPASTT

March 27-28, 2018

argarcia@fordham.edu & Carlos M. Beistáin

Journey´s Proposal/ Road Map:

 PARTICIPATION  PSYCHOSOCIAL DIMENSIONS OF RECOVERY  CULTURAL LEARNINGS  SPACES FOR THE REBUILDING OF THE SOCIAL FABRIC  MEANING MAKING SOURCES & RESILIENCY  INCLUSION AND INTEGRATION  CO-SHAPING KNOWLEDGE AND MUTUAL SUPPORT  FOCUSING ON THE PERSON & THE SITUATION AND NOT ON THE CONDITION  REPARATION AND REHABILITATION AGENDA

Wellbeing

• How to work closely with the victims/survivors/rights-holders of conflict?
• How to bridge the “meaning-making” gap between them and us?
• How to do it with dignity and realism?

• Integrity, access & genuine mutual respect: if you

ask… then you do

• Listening to their own needs: case by case and

collectively

• “It is time to talk”
• Avoiding dependencies
• Promoting their own resources
• Accompanying in time
• Coordinating

Stories of trauma and resiliency: Fatima y Joumana

GREECE, Melissa Women

COLOMBIA, , Missing

WORDS, QUOTES AND SITUATIONS

• COLOMBIA
• GUATE
• US
• GREECE
• ITALY
• SRI LANKA
• BIH
• MEXICO
• SPAIN, MIGRANTS & PAST

Universals

INDIVIDUAL and Collective Wellbeing- FACTORS

• EMOTIONAL RESILIENCY: contentment, sense of

security, hope, flexibility

• SPIRITUALITY: meaningfulness of the world, personal

beliefs.

• RELATIONSHIPS: valued identity, sense of belonging,

protection

• FREEDOM: sense of choice, agency, ability to control,

strategize and resist

• CONTROL OVER RESOURCES: routines, prop.
• COGNITION: Information and Education

COLLECTIVE Factors of f Wellbeing

• NURTURANCE: care for vulnerable persons,
• pportunities for people to achieve their potential,

tolerance for diversity

• PROTECTION: responsible use of power, valuing life,

safeguarding the integrity of people

• PARTICIPATION: consultative decision-making, equity,

information and education

• SUSTAINABILITY: sense of shared present and future
• CONTROL OVER RESOURCES and OPPORTUNITIES- ‘Civil

Society”… land ownership, etc.

TESTIMONIES AND MOVING FORWARD

SUPPORTING PROCESSES

WORKSHOPS AND LEARNINGS

COLLECTIVE SPACES AND SERVICES

GENERATIONS

JU JUSTICE

Guatemala, , Colombia and and other context xts

Greece today- GRF y Melissa

“Decir que la guerra es solo un infierno y nada más es una mentira” A. Baricco (Homero, La Iliada)… La violencia y el caos que conlleva también tienen su “belleza”… y nos atrapa en espirales de agresión.

La ‘OTRA BELLEZA’ de la paz, ¿es posible?

Thank you!

Ευχαριστίες shukram/ ً اركُش Hvala! Gracias

“De Esperas y Esperanzas” Lo Psicosociales en JT

… mirando en la misma dirección. La casa de la verdad no sabe de disciplinas. No vamos a aumentar el numero de testimonios recogidos de victimas de violaciones de derechos humanos, mientras no cambiamos algunas de nuestras practicas profesionales. Las víctimas necesitan confiar en nosotros, sentir que entendemos la complejidad de sus situaciones y sentirse acompañadas en el largo camino de la recuperación de su dignidad y/o la resistencia para continuar viviendo lo que les han dejado de vida, de la mejor manera posible… Se trata también de que confíen en nuestra capacidad básica para escucharles, reconocerles su experiencia de dolor y mantener los compromisos que establecemos con ellos. Ojalá nos equivocásemos y la caja de herramientas con que cuenta cada disciplina fuese suficiente, para paliar daños y asegurar la justicia y la convivencia social. Ojalá sólo el carpintero-abogado fuese capaz de arreglar toda la casa de las víctimas, o el fontanero-psicosocial por si solo, o incluso el médico forense, ejerciendo individualmente como electricista. Pero las víctimas muestran necesidades varias y debemos conocer ´con calma´ la naturaleza de sus demandas, para así coordinar mejor los servicios, y llamar a otros/nuevos profesionales (como los jardineros- economistas que pueden colaborar para crear proyectos productivos/laborales) y hacer mejor el trabajo, no “nuestro” trabajo, sino el que las víctimas piden y el que ellas nos dicen que necesitan. Hablando del trabajo con el dolor, Juan José Millas, un escritor español dice que “se cuentan mejor los esqueletos que los corazones rotos”, y si los colombianos con los que tenemos el gusto de trabajar, nos han enseñado a destacar como ideales la dignidad de la vida y también la dignidad de la muerte, trabajemos con ambos: con los esqueletos de los que perdieron la vida, y con las realidades y las palabras de verdad que nos cuentan los corazones rotos que han sufrido el impacto de la violencia y siguen vivos. Sólo escuchando mejor, y asegurándonos que todos escuchamos lo mismo, podemos de verdad crear mejores realidades. Y si no sabemos, tendremos que ir aprendiendo, unos con otros, con humildad y reconociendo que es difícil trabajar directamente con las víctimas, pero es la única manera de escribir informes, y formular regulaciones, con sentido y dignidad. Con el sentido y la utilidad que sólo pueden darle las personas que han vivido y viven violencia.

“Some times, I don´t give a damn about the stories of the people, … just like when you watch a documentary after lunch … and then a voice inside tells me “this should impress you” … and have learnt that each pain is unique and singular, for reasons that we don´t get to understand.”

Miguel Gil´s Diary. May 23, 2000.

“… The central theme about our society is that it has got elements of a defeated society, people often look like they have given up the struggle… this sense of defeat is basically what we are fighting against; people must not just give in to the hardship of life, people must develop a hope, people must develop some kind of security to be together to look at their problems, and people must in this way build up their humanity. This is the point about conscientization…”

• S. Biko

Responses

• Referral mechanisms (Is it always possible?)
• Victim/survivor support
• Medical
• Legal
• Psycho-social
• Physical security
• Community Advocacy work
• Material (Lively hoods)

• 1. Survivors: “improve/recover our lives”…. Justice.

research by ERF, UNHCR, Kakuma). “The immediate needs: SAFETY, food, shelter, Justice, How to deal with the new roles of women in post-conflict situations.

• 2. ‘Helpers’ (locals & foreign): to improve our

understanding of the dynamics of conflicts and to formulate “justice strategies”, to ultimately prevent and alleviate conflict situations

and the realities of the survivors. Tensions: academy and ´good-

doers´ with its tribes/egos, Integration of diff. disciplines? Theory and applied? what do “people/beneficiaries” have to say?

• 3. Elites designing transitions (to

peace/democracy): “to look forward”

• 4. Perpetrators??

Different interests/lenses:

An attempt to define PSYCHOSOCIAL programs:

• 1. Inger Agger (1996) extensive: a list inclusive of more than 100 programs. A

continuum from Individual Therapy to Community Education Programs. Balkans.

• 2. Martin Baro (1987) interactive.

“ If the foundation for a people’s mental health lies in the existence of humanizing relationships, of collective ties within which and through which the personal humanity of each individual is acknowledged and in which no one’s reality is denied. Then, the building of a better and a more just society, is not only an economic and political problem; it is also essentially a mental health problem”. Central America.

• 3. Renos Papadopoulos, Jack Saul: Dynamic (“ pathology and hope go together…”).

Trauma and its double meaning

• 4. Other ways of implementation: Lykes, B., Wessells, M. Staub, E. Hubbard, J. Bolton,
• P. Beristain, C.

Pragmatic Definition:

WHEN did ‘PSYCHOSOCIAL’ became relevant? BiH and the EU- 1992. WHY?

• EU guilt: political interests
• A war shown on the MEDIA ( the + and – of Journalism in conflict)
• EC recent funding
• ISSUES:
• RAPE
• Concentration Camps
• Srebrenica : mass killings/ exhumations

• 1. Intervention Pyramid (Maslow)
• 2. Sphere guidelines (2004/2006)
• 3. PSWG lenses (2005)
• 4. IASC guidelines (2007)
• 5. “Wellbeing” and “Protection”

Genesis of f “Psychosocial” within HA work HIS ISTORY:

Psychosocial approaches (variations in scopes and methods)

APPROACHES

Focus &Tools

• 1. Individual- PTSD. Distress
• Therapy and Counseling (different modes).

e.g. Survivors Guilt, Complex Grieff, PTSD, Depression, Rage, etc.

• 2. Community- Soc. fabric, t&f
• Focus/Focal groups. PAR .
• Education, Training e.g. local realities, gender roles, lively hoods, etc.
• 3. Human rights- Public regulations
• Testimonies collection and advocacy. Network/Lobbying .

e.g. justice processes Media + Legal Courts

An example of Community Work- Steps: Action Planning

• Clearly define the need or the problem
• Define resources (social history of the community)
• Identify the vision/goal
• State objectives - what you intend to achieve
• Costs and benefits
• Agree upon a plan - consensus
• Who will do what, when, where, and how

“Cualquier consideración abstracta, incluso si se refiere a problemas humanos, es inútil a la hora de mitigar el sufrimiento de las personas concretas” Ernesto Sábato, 2000. ¿Tiene razón?

• - “There´s really no such a thing as the voiceless. There are
• nly the deliberately silenced, or the preferably unheard”

Arundhati Roy

• - “Until their story is told, my heart burns…”

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Beliefs involved in conflict (Eidelsons, 2003,

applied to Colombia (Libertad))

• Superiority (setting their codes of conduct in the village,

and the punishments for missbehavior)

• Injustice (women accused of collaboration with other

groups, of luck of appreciation for the good the P were doing)

• Vulnerability (younger girls,women with kids more afraid to

be threaten again…), Them, P, exposed to the “vices & diseases” of the village.

• Distrust (“you are a spy,” accusations of witchcraft)
• Helplessness (IMPUNITY; victims saying: “they were the

best psychologists of human evil” “do not fight them back, they are armed”)

RESOURCES FROM OTHER EXPERIENCES

• MEMORIA PARA LA VIDA
• LA VERDAD DE LAS MUJERES
• People´s Court and women´s Courts
• ICTJ, WOMEN (2012) CHILDREN(2014)
• ArtIcles: Lindsay Stark, Laura Perez, Hilde Jacobsen…