Medicine,
Mind and Adolescence 1997, XII, 1-2
Giovanni Galli est Lucia Castelli
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Traumatic events cause intense and lasting emotional distress for some victims. It has been established through research and clinical evidence, that the majority of adults and children who are exposed to traumatic events and violence exhibit common traumatic stress responses after the event. These symptoms are normal reactions to abnormal events. Childhood trauma can be defined as the mental result of a sudden, external blow or a series of blows, which render the young child temporarily helpless and which exceed ordinary coping strategies. Therefore the trauma begins with events that occur outside the child, and once these events have taken place, internal changes occur within the child. In this contest the related stressors of the war trauma include both direct effects like the exposure to life threatening situations, violent injury and death (as seen in conditions of acute and chronic war settings), as well as indirect effects of war, such as the effects of parental separation, loss and absence. Whatever the situation of the children, their experiences and conditions of life, they continue to develop physically, socially and emotionally.
A child's overall development is a function of a number of factors - physical, psychological, social and cultural. It’s for these reasons that our manner for the recovery of war traumatized children is an integrated-holistic approach that recognise the interrelationship between these factors, would offer a framework for assessment and intervention to maximise the chances of effective recovery and social reintegration. Thus the child's family and community should be incorporated into the process of securing their well-being, trough involving them at the outset in a dialogue to define and implement appropriate and preventive strategies.
(Paper presented at the Conference "Counselling with adolescents",
June, 21 1997, Milan, Italy)
Key Words: holistic approach, war
traumatized children, preventive strategies.
