12/04/2024
Trauma Recovery Survivors 12/03/24
PTSD Coping Resources in Arabic and Ukranian
As a chaplain and art therapist, I have been on 12 missions in the Middle East and Eastern Europe. We support refugee children and military service members coping with the mental health stressors following exposure to traumatic events. In addition to the art circles with refugee children, we have helped train NGO staff and volunteers in trauma-informed expressive therapies (art and music) and the use of mobile apps. Our US VA clinicians have developed these holistic modalities to support our veterans coping with PTSD and Traumatic Brain Injuries. We apply this research and resources to enhance refugee mental health coping skills. First we focused on Ukranian and now we expand into Arabic resources.
VA PTSD Coach App
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETFyoNxGXnA
VA PTSD White Board Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMC2jt_QVEE
Our current project is the development of the PTSD Coach App in Arabic. We have been working on this since Aug when I returned to Lebanon. We consulted with faculty at American University of Beirut. We are taking what we learned from the PTSD Coach App being translated into Ukranian. (Jan 2024)
2022-2024: Code for Romania was able to partner with the VA PTSD Center in Palo Alto to translate the PTSD Coach App into Ukranian. Last May, I returned to Ukraine to interpret and promote this app with members of the Ukranian Defense Forces.
Commit Global Bucharest, Romania
https://dopomoha.ro/en
This PTSD Coach App in Arabic will help confront the epidemic of untreated PTSD among millions of Arabic speaking refugees in Syria, Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey and Sudan. Like our military service members, many refugees are coping with Poly Trauma (PTSD and TBIs). Like our veterans, refugees are at higher risk of developing a dual diagnosis w/ substance abuse. This then increases the likelihood of contact with law enforcement and higher risks for su***de.
The trauma recovery work continues long after the guns and bombs go silent. Offering our US PTSD recovery resources in Arabic can serve as a diplomatic and humanitarian measure in the Marshall Plan 2.0 that is needed in our world. When we take better care of refugee children's mental health, we are actually investing in violence prevention and counter terrorism measures.l
Chaplain Howard Dotson
Minneapolis
Resources:
Dr Mona Amer
10th Annual Muslim Mental Health Conference (2018 US Institute of Peace, Washington DC
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9WTyxWr5cE
https://i0.wp.com/giveanhour.org/wp-content/uploads/Arabic-Five-Signs-21.png?ssl=1
https://giveanhour.org/wp-content/uploads/Five-Signs-Fact-Sheet-4.5.2021.pdf
https://www.mayoclinic.org/ar/diseases-conditions/post-traumatic-stress-disorder/symptoms-causes/syc-20355967
https://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/mental-health/translations/arabic/post-traumatic-stress-disorder-(PTSD)
https://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/international/humanitarian-resources/international-crisis-resources
https://www.nctsn.org/resources/after-a-crisis-helping-young-children-heal-ara
https://www.undp.org/ukraine/press-releases/ukraine-new-online-support-post-traumatic-stress-disorders
https://healtorture.org/resources/harvard-trauma-questionnaire-arabic-iraqi/
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6443105/
https://www.ajmc.com/view/how-telemedicine-is-becoming-a-savior-in-syrian-refugee-crisis
https://www.fastcompany.com/3057572/how-this-doctor-is-using-telemedicine-to-treat-syrian-refugees
https://conflictandhealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13031-022-00493-7
Background The COVID-19 pandemic has escalated the use of telemedicine in both high and low resource settings however its use has preceded this, particularly in conflict-affected settings. Several countries in the WHO Eastern Mediterranean (EMR) region are affected by complex, protracted crises. Tho...
