Trauma, Collective Trauma and Refugee Trajectories in the Digital Era: Development of the Trauma Recovery Understanding Self-

Description

Forced migration has become an inescapable reality of our world in the 21st century. Why? The traumatic experiences of refugees are key to understanding why people keep on the move despite enormous risks. This book sheds light into the psychological impact entailed in refugee trajectories. With findings mainly from Eritrean refugee communities in multiple locations, the underpinning research reveals alarming levels of individual and collective trauma. The book outlines a new approach for treatment: Trauma, Recovery, Understanding, Self-Help Therapy - TRUST. The intervention was developed as a practical and low resource support to traumatised vulnerable refugees. TRUST utilises information technology to reduce levels of trauma, enabling refugees to build social and economic resilience as an alternative to pursuing risky migratory trajectories. The study concludes that providing psycho-social support is a more prudent alternative to managing forced migration and avoiding the use of hostile refugee polices that expose refugees to more trauma and put them at risk of heinous organised crimes including human trafficking. TRUST resulted in significant positive outcomes for refugee wellbeing even in deprived refugee camps. Cover Title page Copyright page Proefschrift Summary About the Author Acknowledgement Acronyms Contents Chapter 1 - Introduction 1.1 The refugee-making process 1.2 Context of the research: Traumatised Eritrean refugees 1.3 Problem statement 1.4 Aim of the research 1.5 Theoretical approach to trauma healing 1.6 Research questions and design 1.6.1 Research questions 1.6.2 Research design 1.7 Study instruments, locations, and collaboration 1.8 Research collaborations 1.9 Terminology 1.9.1 Refugees 1.9.2 Trauma 1.9.3 Collective trauma 1.9.4 Socio-economic resilience 1.9.5 ICT 1.10 Ethical considerations 1.10.1 Professional integrity 1.10.2 Respect for the rights and dignity of all participants 1.10.3 Wellbeing of participants 1.11 Scientific and societal relevance 1.12 Conclusion Chapter 2 - The significance of psychological trauma in the care and protection of refugees: A framework 2.1 Political violence and trauma 2.2 Individual trauma 2.2.1 Trauma and the human brain 2.2.2 Trauma and socio-economic resilience 2.2.3 Trauma, information processing, decision making and risk appraisal 2.2.4 Self-efficacy and trauma 2.3 Collective trauma 2.3.1 Understanding collective trauma and its implications for refugees on the move 2.3.2 What is collective trauma? 2.3.3 Individual trauma in the context of collective trauma 2.3.4 Diminished problem-solving skills 2.3.5 Discontinuity 2.4 The relevance of ICT in trauma and collective trauma 2.4.1 The role of ICT in causing trauma 2.4.2 The potential of ICT for healing trauma 2.4.3 The challenges of connectivity 2.5 Conclusion Chapter 3 - Research design and methods 3.1 Research methodology 3.2 Quantitative research design 3.2.1 Descriptive surveys 3.2.2 Design study 3.2.3 Feasibility studies 3.3 Research instruments 3.3.1 Impact of Events Scale-Revised 3.3.1.1 Statistics of items in IES-R subscales 3.3.2 Social and Economic Resilience Scale 3.3.2.1 Development of SER-S 3.3.2.2 Statistical properties of SER-S 3.3.3 Internet Social Capital Scale 3.3.3.1 Social capital online 3.3.3.2 Social capital offline 3.3.4 Survey of social media use 3.4 Qualitative research design 3.4.1 Interviews 3.4.2 Focus group discussions 3.4.3 Observations 3.5 Sampling 3.6 Conclusion Chapter 4 - Levels of traumatic stress among Eritrean refugees 4.1 Introduction 4.2 Human trafficking in the Sinai 4.3 Method 4.3.1 Research instrument 4.3.2 Procedure 4.3.3 Participants 4.4 Results 4.5 Conclusion Chapter 5 - The prevalence of ICT and social media in Eritrean refugee communities 5.1 Introduction 5.2 Method 5.2.1 Research instrument 5.2.2 Procedure 5.2.3 Participants 5.3 Results 5.3.1 Radio listening habits 5.3.1.1 Frequency of radio listening 5.3.1.2 Broadcast language 5.3.1.3 Device used 5.3.2 Social media usage 5.3.3 Semi-structured interviews 5.4 Conclusion Chapter 6 - Development of a self-help low-cost post-traumatic stress programme 6.1 Trauma and the human brain 6.2 EMDR as a trauma healing intervention 6.3 Multilevel healing of trauma in post-war contexts 6.4 Contextualising and enlarging the impact of trauma support 6.5 Development and implementation of an App for healing trauma 6.6 Outline of TRUST sessions 6.7 Conclusion Chapter 7 - Testing the effectiveness of the TRUST programme in Uganda 7.1 Introduction 7.2 Method 7.2.1 Research design 7.2.2 Participants 7.2.3 Research instruments 7.2.3.1 Impact of Events Scale-Revised 7.2.3.2 Social and Economic Resilience tool 7.2.3.3 Interviews and observations 7.3 Results: Effects of TRUST on the reduction of trauma 7.3.1 Quantitative results 7.3.2 Qualitative results 7.3.2.1 When the rebels came: Prevalence of traumatic experiences 7.3.2.2 The rebels will come back: Prevalence of traumatic stress 7.3.2.3 The rebels are not coming back: Impact of trauma intervention 7.4 Conclusion Chapter 8 - The effectiveness of delivering TRUST using ICT among Eritrean refugees in Ethiopia 8.1 Introduction: Eritrean refugees in Tigray 8.2 The development and implementation of the 24COMS App 8.3 Method 8.3.1 Overview 8.3.2 Research design 8.3.3 Participants 8.3.4 Research instruments 8.3.5 Ethical considerations 8.4 Results 8.4.1 Hypotheses 8.4.2 Correlation between PTSD, SER and ISCS in the pre-test 8.4.3 Effectiveness of TRUST 8.4.3.1 Is TRUST effective in reducing traumatic stress? 8.4.3.2 Can TRUST increase social and economic resilience as measured on the SER-S? 8.4.3.3 Can TRUST improve social capital? 8.4.4 Qualitative results 8.5 Conclusion Chapter 9 - Discussion and conclusion 9.1 Trauma levels among Eritrean refugees 9.1.1 A high level of trauma 9.1.2 Collective trauma and social capital 9.1.3 Implications for ongoing migration 9.2 The prevalence of ICT among Eritrean refugees 9.2.1 Prevalence of ICT among Eritrean refugees 9.2.2 ICT as a trusted means of communication 9.2.3 ICT as a means of delivering trauma therapy 9.3 A self-help trauma intervention for high trauma/low resource contexts 9.3.1 Development of TRUST 9.3.2 Testing TRUST in Northern Uganda 9.4 Delivering TRUST through ICT 9.4.1 Delivering TRUST among Eritrean refugees in Tigray 9.4.2 Challenges of delivering TRUST via ICT 9.4.3 Trauma and the ongoing refugee trajectory 9.5 Conclusion and recommendations 9.5.1 Main research question 9.5.2 Recommendations 9.5.3 Final words References Appendices Appendix 1. Baseline questionnaire Appendix 2. Social and Economic Resilience Scale (SER) Appendix 3. Impact of Events Scale-Short (IES-S) Appendix 4. Internet Social Capital Scale (ISCS) Appendix 5. Interview topic list Appendix 6. Research funding Back cover