SESSION SIX: PSYCHOSOCIAL SUPPORT

Objectives:  Identify critical issues; good practice and limitations of organized efforts to provide psychosocial support to children in humanitarian emergencies.

Readings:

•    Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) (2007). IASC Guidelines on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Emergency Settings. Geneva: IASC.
•    Boothby, N. (2008) Political Violence and Development:  An Ecologic Approach to Children in War Zones. Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North America. 17(3): 497- 514.
•    Nicolai, S., and C. Triplehorn. (2003) The Role of Education in Protecting Children in Conflict. London: Overseas Development Institute.
•    Boothby, N. and C. Melvin. Towards best practices in school-based psychosocial programming: A survey of current approaches.
•    Boothby, N. and M. Veatch. (2007) Community Mental Health Treatment, Protection and Promotion for Women and Children in Aceh. USAID.

Blog Question (in partnership):  Why are western approaches to providing psychosocial support to populations affected by disaster and war being questioned by NGO practitioners?  How do the IASC Guidelines deal with this tension?

Class Exercise:  PSSA Simulations