“We are children like others”: Pathways to mental health and healing for children born of genocidal rape in Rwanda

2019 ◽  
Vol 56 (3) ◽  
pp. 510-528 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarilee Kahn ◽  
Myriam Denov

Despite the well-documented prevalence of rape as a strategy of war, little is known about the specific psychological consequences to children born of conflict-related sexual violence. The results of data analysis of 7 focus groups and 60 in-depth interviews with children born of genocidal rape in Rwanda indicated that they are carrying the trauma of their own stigmatization and marginalization, are burdened with their mothers' trauma, and, we conclude, symbolize unresolved collective trauma for the society. Analysis also reveals that healing for these young adults requires interpersonal and intrapersonal compassion and acceptance, a meaningful connection with a peer group, societal recognition, and empowerment to help contribute to and transform their lives and societies. Each of these pathways to healing—intrapersonal, interpersonal, and social—is contingent upon the other, and none can be considered in isolation. To support this largely invisible population striving to fulfill their potential, opportunities need to be created for self-acceptance and acceptance by mothers, families, and communities; sharing and building emotional and social bonds with their cohort group; formal recognition; official social rituals to validate their experiences and those of the mother–child dyad in the context of culture and community; and for socioeconomic opportunities to enable them to fully participate in building the future of Rwanda.

2020 ◽  
pp. 002076402096600
Author(s):  
Uttara Seshu ◽  
Homam A Khan ◽  
Manish Bhardwaj ◽  
C Sangeetha ◽  
G Aarthi ◽  
...  

Background: Perinatal depression (PND) is one of the most common psychiatric illnesses in women, with a prevalence around 22% in India. Leveraging mobile-based technologies could help in the prevention and treatment of perinatal depression even in remote places. Understanding the experiences and barriers of using such technology interventions by perinatal mothers could help in the better design and in delivery of these interventions. We aimed to study the experiences of the perinatal women using a mobile phone-based intervention, Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS), for the prevention and management of perinatal depression in a rural district of Bihar, India. Materials and methods: A total of 12 in-depth interviews (IDIs) and one focus group discussion (FGD) with eight participants were conducted with perinatal mothers using the mobile-based IVRS to explore the experiences and perspectives of women receiving mobile phone-based interventions for the treatment of PND. Thematic analysis was done to identify major themes. Results: Five major themes emerged from the study around accessibility, usability, community participation, cost and preference to either intervention. Women found the mobile-based intervention useful as it made them feel lighter. They considered mental health as a health issue and wanted help to address their problems. They became familiar with terms like anxiety, depression, helplessness and burden and bean using them in their conversations. The patients used therapeutic strategies such as breathing, coping and relaxation. They even agreed to take up sessions for their peer group. Conclusion: Women in rural Bihar seemed satisfied with the technology-based intervention. It has made mental health issues more visible and acceptable even in the rural hinterlands of Bihar.


1992 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 329-330
Author(s):  
Richard H. Price

2020 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 787-817 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hira Kanwal ◽  
Humaira Jami

The purpose of the study was to explore modes, strategies, and consequences of cyberbullying perpetration and victimization among university students. In-depth interviews of 14 volunteer university students (8 male and 6 female) were conducted who volunteered to participate in the study in which 10 participants were “cybervictims” whereas 4 were “cyberbully-victim”. Interview guide was used for conducting unstructured interviews. Thematic analysis of the interviews revealed different experiences in cyberspace with respect to gender and role (cybervictim and cyberbully-victim) in experiencing cyberbullying and cyber-victimization. Three themes emerged that is psychological consequences (emotional, behavioral, and cognitive), social consequences (family and peers), and change in lifestyle (online, offline, and academic). Facebook was found to be the most prevalent mode of cyberbullying. The cyberbully-victim participants derived more happiness while bullying and had revengeful attitude; whereas, cybervictims experienced more depression, increased family surveillance, social isolation, and became aware of negative consequences of social networking sites, became more vigilant and conscious in cyberspace. Moreover, the consequences reported by cyberbully-victim were distrust on security settings, low academic achievement, and their peers learnt from their cyberspace experience. Perception of cyber-victimization was different across gender and its psychological impact was more pronounced for girls than boys. The results and implications were discussed in Pakistani context.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
María Jesús Gómez Camuñas ◽  
Purificación González Villanueva

<div><i>Background</i>: the creative capacities and the knowledge of the employees are components of the intellectual capital of the company; hence, their training is a key activity to achieve the objectives and business growth. <i>Objective</i>: To understand the meaning of learning in the hospital from the experiences of its participants through the inquiry of meanings. <i>Method</i>: Qualitative design with an ethnographic approach, which forms part of a wider research, on organizational culture; carried out mainly in 2 public hospitals of the Community of Madrid. The data has been collected for thirteen months. A total of 23 in-depth interviews and 69 field sessions have been conducted through the participant observation technique. <i>Results</i>: the worker and the student learn from what they see and hear. The great hospital offers an unregulated education, dependent on the professional, emphasizing that they learn everything. Some transmit the best and others, even the humiliating ones, use them for dirty jobs, focusing on the task and nullifying the possibility of thinking. They show a reluctant attitude to teach the newcomer, even if they do, they do not have to oppose their practice. In short, a learning in the variability, which produces a rupture between theory and practice; staying with what most convinces them, including negligence, which affects the patient's safety. In the small hospital, it is a teaching based on a practice based on scientific evidence and personalized attention, on knowing the other. Clearly taught from the reception, to treat with caring patience and co-responsibility in the care. The protagonists of both scenarios agree that teaching and helping new people establish lasting and important personal relationships to feel happy and want to be in that service or hospital. <i>Conclusion</i>: There are substantial differences related to the size of the center, as to what and how the student and the novel professional are formed. At the same time that the meaning of value that these health organizations transmit to their workers is inferred through the training, one orienting to the task and the other to the person, either patient, professional or pupil and therefore seeking the common benefit.</div>


Author(s):  
Samuel K. Cohn, Jr.

This book challenges a dominant hypothesis in the study of epidemics. From an interdisciplinary array of scholars, a consensus has emerged: invariably, epidemics in past times provoked class hatred, blame of the ‘other’, or victimization of the diseases’ victims. It is also claimed that when diseases were mysterious, without cures or preventive measures, they more readily provoked ‘sinister connotations’. The evidence for these assumptions, however, comes from a handful of examples—the Black Death, the Great Pox at the end of the sixteenth century, cholera riots of the 1830s, and AIDS, centred almost exclusively on the US experience. By investigating thousands of descriptions of epidemics, reaching back before the fifth-century BCE Plague of Athens to the eruption of Ebola in 2014, this study traces epidemics’ socio-psychological consequences across time and discovers a radically different picture. First, scholars, especially post-AIDS, have missed a fundamental aspect of the history of epidemics: their remarkable power to unify societies across class, race, ethnicity, and religion, spurring self-sacrifice and compassion. Second, hatred and violence cannot be relegated to a time when diseases were mysterious, before the ‘laboratory revolution’ of the late nineteenth century: in fact, modernity was the great incubator of a disease–hate nexus. Third, even with diseases that have tended to provoke hatred, such as smallpox, poliomyelitis, plague, and cholera, blaming ‘the other’ or victimizing disease bearers has been rare. Instead, the history of epidemics and their socio-psychological consequences has been richer and more varied than scholars and public intellectuals have heretofore allowed.


2021 ◽  
pp. 002076402198973
Author(s):  
Kathleen Ford ◽  
Aree Jampaklay ◽  
Aphichat Chamatrithirong

Aim: The objective of this paper is to examine the level of psychiatric symptoms and associated factors among Thai migrants from the southernmost Thai provinces of Pattani, Yala, and Narithiwat who are working in Malaysia. Comparisons will be made with the sending population in the southernmost provinces of Thailand. Methods: Data are drawn from survey and in-depth interviews with Thai migrants who are working in Malaysia. Comparisons are made with a probability sample of working age adults in Thailand. The twenty item Self Reporting Questionnaire (SRQ) was the measure of mental health. Results: The study found that the migrants, on average, have normal levels of psychiatric symptoms. However, although about 24% of migrants reported more eight or more symptoms that may indicate a need for evaluation. There are many stressors in their lives including distance from families, reduced social support, legal matters surrounding immigration, and discrimination/exploitation of migrant groups. Conclusion: The study highlights the need for policy makers and non-governmental organizations to give attention to migrants’ mental health, well-being and sustainable livelihoods.


Author(s):  
Gul Muhammad Baloch ◽  
Kamilah Kamaludin ◽  
Karuthan Chinna ◽  
Sheela Sundarasen ◽  
Mohammad Nurunnabi ◽  
...  

COVID-19 has speedily immersed the globe with 72+ million cases and 1.64 million deaths, in a span of around one year, disturbing and deteriorating almost every sphere of life. This study investigates how students in Pakistan have coped with the COVID-19. Zung’s self-rating anxiety scale (SAS) was used for measuring anxiety and the coping strategies were measured on four strategies i.e., seeking social support, humanitarian, acceptance, and mental disengagement. Among 494 respondents, 61% were females and 77.3% of the students were in the age group of 19–25 years. The study findings indicate that approximately 41 percent of students are experiencing some level of anxiety, including 16% with severe to extreme levels. Seeking social support seemed to be the least preferred coping strategy and that female students seek social support, humanitarian, and acceptance coping strategies more than males. Students used both emotion-based and problem-based coping strategies. The variables of gender, age, ethnicity, level and type of study, and living arrangement of the students were associated with usage of coping strategies. Findings showing that students do not prefer to seek social support. The study outcomes will provide basic data for university policies in Pakistan and the other countries with same cultural contexts to design and place better mental health provisions for students.


2021 ◽  
pp. 003022282110009
Author(s):  
Li Ping Wong ◽  
Sik Loo Tan ◽  
Haridah Alias ◽  
Thiam Eng Sia ◽  
Aik Saw

The COVID-19 pandemic has put a hold on the Silent Mentor Programme (SMP); this pause has not only caused unprecedented challenges for the delivery of medical education but has forced changes in the programme ceremony sessions. We aimed to describe the psychological impact and experiences of family members of silent mentors during the COVID-19 pandemic using qualitative interviews. Many expressed feelings of remorse and unrest about the unprecedented delay of the SMP. The delay increased negative emotions particularly among some elderly family members; however, there was no prominent negative effect on their functional health and well-being. Several participants relayed the belief that the soul cannot rest until the body receives a proper burial while some worried about the deterioration of the physical condition of the mentors. In conclusion, findings provide insights into the importance of not overlooking the mental health implications of delaying the SMP in future outbreaks or crises.


Author(s):  
Tetsuya Akaishi ◽  
Tomomi Suzuki ◽  
Harumi Nemoto ◽  
Yusuke Utsumi ◽  
Moe Seto ◽  
...  

Abstract Objective: This study aims to evaluate the long-term impact of living in post-disaster prefabricated temporary housing on social interaction activities and mental health status. Methods: A total of 917 adult residents in a coastal town, whose residences were destroyed by the tsunami caused by the Great East Japan Earthquake (GEJE), were enrolled for the assessment held five years after the disaster. They answered questions about their experience and consequence of living in prefabricated temporary housing after the disaster. Their present scores on five types of self-reported measures regarding the psychosocial or psychiatric status and their present and recalled social interaction activities were cross-sectionally collected. Results: A total of 587 (64.0%) participants had a history of living in prefabricated temporary housing, while the other 330 (36.0%) had not. The prevalence of social interaction activities significantly decreased after the GEJE. However, the experience of living in prefabricated temporary housing did not adversely affect the subsequent social interaction activities or mental conditions of the participants five years after the disaster. Conclusions: Living in post-disaster prefabricated temporary housing may not negatively impact subsequent psychosocial conditions or social interaction activities five years later.


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