Idaho State University

Half Day Institute: Culturally Aware Community Programming Following Conflict or Disaster
International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, 5 November 2005, Toronto, CA

Stamm, B. Hudnall, PhD¹; Higson-Smith, Craig, MA²; Iskandar-Dharmawan, Livia, MSc³; Hudnall, Amy C. MA⁴; Cripe, Lynne M. PhD^5
1Institute of Rural Health, Idaho State University, Pocatello, Idaho, USA
²South African Institute for Traumatic Stress, Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa
³Pulih Foundation for Trauma Intervention and Psychosocial Recovery, Jakarta, Indonesia, Indonesia
⁴History, Appalachian State University, Boone, North Carolina, USA
⁵Bureau of Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance, United States Agency for International Development, Alexandria, Virginia, USA

Disasters and conflicts transform communities. How the world responds to that crisis-wrought transformation effects long-term political, cultural and clinical change. Drawing from science, theory, and on-the-ground expertise, the leaders of this pre-meeting institute will examine principals of creating successful, culturally aware, community-based programming in conflict and disaster situations by interweaving the skills of international, national, and local aide organizations. Some of the difficulties include local organizations being victims of the disaster as well as responding to it; international responders, as the result of well-intentioned rush to provide assistance, bypassing national and local organizations or judging them (appropriately or not) inadequate to respond. In other cases, the organizational culture of some international agencies may not match well with the community needing help. Two key themes will be addressed. First, in situations of large-scale disasters, the intervention is based on the community characteristics and its need to rebalance, not on individual trauma counseling. Second, to sustain an appropriate level of relief effort, those who are responding to the disaster—be they local or expatriate workers—must have appropriate institutional support. The 2005 tsunami disaster highlighted these issues and other problems of quickly combining the skills of local, national and international aide organizations. Using the tsunami disaster as a case example, this symposium will consider: (1) why aide relief requires community-based systems; (2) how to interweave the talents, resources, and skills of international groups with those of the community aide groups without “swallowing whole” the local groups; (3) what interpersonal, organizational, and technical skills are required to accomplish this interweaving; (4) what kinds of materials and training are needed and available to address issues like religion, culture or beliefs that affect the healing of the community; and (5) engaging the community in their own recovery as quickly without ignoring particular groups like women or children. Throughout the presentation, specific content regarding protection of workers will be included. For example, we will consider how to support local aide groups that have unique and necessary skills but are also working with unique problems of fear and loss.

Models of Cultural Contact, Trauma, and Healing

Diagram of the Cultural Contact

 

Recent Publications

Stamm, B.H., Stamm, H.E., Hudnall, A.C. & Higson-Smith, C. (2004). Considering A Theory of Cultural Trauma and Loss. Invited article for Journal of Loss and Trauma, 9, 89-111.

Stamm, B. H., Higson-Smith, C. & Hudnall, A. C. (2004). The complexities of working with terror. In D. Knafo (Ed.). Living with Terror, Working with Terror: A Clinician’s Handbook. Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson.

Stamm, B. H. (2004). Modeling Telehealth and Telemedicine: A Global Geosociopolitical Perspective Proceedings: 26th Annual IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society Conference