Program helps heal war trauma

NEW HAVEN — A structured community-based program has been shown to reduce feelings of insecurity and mental health issues in youths traumatized by Syria’s civil war, according to a Yale University-led study published Monday.

The eight-week program, sponsored by Mercy Corps and called Advancing Adolescents, was launched in 2014 and included Syrian refugees in northern Jordan as well as Jordanian youth affected by the war, according to a Yale press release.

The program, focused on youths aged 12 to 18, is led by adult coaches, who conduct group activities and skill-building and is designed to reduce the effects of stress and build family and community relationships, the release said.

“Community-based mental health interventions can help young people process the extreme stress of conflict and forced displacement,” said Catherine Panter-Brick, professor of anthropology, health and global affairs at Yale, the study’s lead author, in the release. “Our findings will help humanitarian organizations develop evidence-based programs to protect and support the development of conflict-affected youth.”

This may be the first evidence that such programs can help youths feel more secure after suffering trauma from ongoing conflict.

About 5.2 million people have fled the 6-year-old Syrian civil war. More than 650,000 Syrian refugees are living in Jordan.

“Adolescents have been largely overlooked in the Syria crisis, yet they represent the present and future of the region,” said Amie Wells, regional youth and adolescent adviser for Mercy Corps, in the release. “This study underscores the critical importance of continued investments in psychosocial support for youth as a means to build pathways to a peaceful, healthy and secure future.”

According to the study, mental health symptoms improved in affected youths whether or not they took part in the program, but those who did participate recovered more quickly. The intervention was most effective with young people who had been exposed to four or

more traumatic events, the release said. However, the program benefited all young people who expressed high levels of insecurity, such as worrying about themselves, their families and their future.

“These community-based programs are vital to help youth facing very difficult circumstances,” Panter-Brick said. “Research like this can help strengthen programs and improve the ways they are assessed. We can identify the key components of an intervention and evaluate what works best, for whom, over time. We also help by selecting the best measures with which to assess changes in stress, insecurity and mental health.”

“We were able to accomplish our research goals and better engage with Syrian and Jordanian communities because we established strong partnerships in the local context,” said Rana Dajani, professor of biology at the Hashemite University and local research team leader, in the release. “This proved so important for conducting research in an ethical, participatory manner, as well as for enriching the research process with local knowledge.”

The researchers were to share their findings at a meeting on research on mental health and psychosocial support in humanitarian settings at the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland, on Monday. The study was published Monday in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry.