Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
  1. Home
  2. Search

Refine search

Refine search

Access:
Content type:
Publication date:
Apply   From and To filters
Subject: Show more
Journals Show more
Publishers: Show more
Societies Show more
Series: Show more
Collections: Show more

Actions for selected content:

Select all | Deselect all
  • View selected items
  • Export citations
  • Download PDF (zip)
  • Save to Kindle
  • Save to Dropbox
  • Save to Google Drive

Save Search

You can save your searches here and later view and run them again in "My saved searches".

Please provide a title, maximum of 40 characters.
Cancel
×

6 results

  • Effect of daily stressors and collective efficacy on post-traumatic stress symptoms among internally displaced persons in post-war northern Sri Lanka

  • Daya Somasundaram, Rohan Jayasuriya, Ruwanthi Perera, Umaharan Thamotharampillai, Rajitha Wickremasinghe, Alvin Kuowei Tay
  • Journal:
    BJPsych Open / Volume 9 / Issue 6 / November 2023
    Published online by Cambridge University Press:
    11 October 2023, e180
    • Article
      • You have access
      • Open access
    • PDF
    • HTML
    • Export citation
  • Background

    Daily stressors have been shown to mediate the relationship of war trauma and trauma-related distress among refugees and internally displaced persons exposed to war and conflict.

    Aims

    To examine the extent to which the relationship between war-related trauma and mental distress was mediated by daily stressors and collective efficacy among internally displaced communities a decade after exposure to war.

    Method

    In a cross-sectional study, we recruited a random sample of residents in villages severely affected by conflict in five districts in the Northern Province of Sri Lanka. Measures of war trauma, daily stressors, collective efficacy and post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) were examined. Statistical analyses of the mediating and moderating effects of daily stressors were conducted using regression based methods.

    Results

    Daily stressors mediated the association of war trauma and PTSS, as both paths of the indirect effect, war trauma to daily stressors and daily stressors to PTSS, were significant. The predictive effect of war trauma on PTSS was positive and significant at moderate and high levels of daily stressors but not at low levels. Higher levels of neighbourhood informal social control, a component of collective efficacy, function as a protective factor to reduce effects of war trauma and daily stressors on mental distress in this population.

    Conclusions

    Daily stressors are an important mediator in the well-established relationship between war exposure and traumatic stress among internally displaced persons, even a decade after the conflict. Mental health and psychosocial support programmes that aim to address mental distress among war-affected communities could reduce daily stressors and enhance collective efficacy in this context.

  • Chapter 23 - Child soldiers

  • from Section 4 - Systems of development for special populations
  • Edited by Samuel O. Okpaku
  • Book:
    Essentials of Global Mental Health
    Published online:
    05 March 2014
    Print publication:
    27 February 2014, pp 213-221

  • Summary

    The management and treatment of mental disorders in primary care is a fundamental step which enables the largest number of people to get easier and faster access to services. Primary health care systems are increasingly relied upon to deliver a myriad of health services, especially in situations of scarcity. In low- and middle- income countries, where poverty and sickness are high, and access to health care is low, health professionals and policy makers have emphasized approaches that integrate the diverse roles of health care and social systems. For HIV programs, integration has enabled shared use of space and staffing through training of healthcare workers and standardizing procedures, increasing the number of people who have receive care. Integration to primary care was one of the World Health Organization's (WHO's) 10 recommendations in the World Health Report 2001 on mental health.

  • Chapter 12 - Collective trauma

  • from Section 2 - Consequences of migration
  • Edited by Dinesh Bhugra, Susham Gupta
  • Book:
    Migration and Mental Health
    Published online:
    04 February 2011
    Print publication:
    02 December 2010, pp 149-158

  • Summary

    The migration process will be affected by personality characteristics and other factors such as education, socio-economic status, previous experience of migration and the social capital which people bring with them when they migrate. Several biological, psychological and social environmental and cultural factors interact and lead to the development of a bio-psycho-social model of aetiology and management. Individuals are born into a culture and not with a culture. Cultures are dynamic and keep changing as a result of coming into contact with other cultures, through direct or indirect contact. Social factors such as unemployment, poor housing, urbanisation, over-crowding and changes in family structure have been shown to be related to poor mental health. Poor educational background will influence pre- and post-migration experiences. After migration, the possibility of cultural bereavement, culture shock or cultural conflict will play a role in adjustment to the new culture.

  • Treatment of massive trauma due to war

  • Daya Somasundaram
  • Journal:
    Advances in Psychiatric Treatment / Volume 3 / Issue 6 / November 1997
    Published online by Cambridge University Press:
    02 January 2018, pp. 321-330
    Print publication:
    November 1997
    • Article
      • You have access
    • PDF
    • Export citation

  • Treatment of trauma has been already covered in this journal (Adshead, 1995) and elsewhere (Davidson, 1992; Kleber & Brom, 1992; Wilson & Raphael, 1993). However, there are situations where the trauma can become extensive and chronic, sometimes called Type II trauma (Terr, 1991), necessitating additional therapeutic considerations. Such situations are not uncommon in the world today, frequently occurring during wars that are typically ‘low-intensity’ conflicts involving poor, Third World countries. It has been estimated that there have been over 150 such wars since 1945, in which 90% of all casualties are civilians. According to Summerfield (1996), what predominates is the use of terror to exert social control, if necessary by disrupting the social, economic and cultural structures. The target is often population rather than territory and psychological warfare is the central element. Atrocities, including civilian massacres, reprisals, bombing, shelling, mass displacements, disappearances and torture are the norm. The consequences for mental health, not to mention the social, economic, cultural and other costs, can be substantial.