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WORLD ISLAMIC
ASSOCIATION FOR MENTAL HEALTH Vol. I, No. I. First Issue - November, 1998
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CONTENTS / SOMMAIRE
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Message
From the Secretary General
Third International Conference on Working with Traumatized Children and
Their Families, University of Missouri International Center for Psychosocial
Trauma, July 11/1998 - July 12/1998. /
A Report by Dr. M.
Farouk EL - SENDIONY:
q
Lessons from Bosnia:
"Medicine for 724 Children" / DR. M. Farouk
EL-SENDIONY.
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Section Symposium for
the Egyptian Chapter of the World Islamic Association for Mental Health.
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Dr. Abu Bakr Badahdah's Support for WIAMH:
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Message
From the Secretary General
THIRD INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON WORKING WITH TRAUMATIZED CHILDREN AND
THEIR FAMILIES, UNIVERSITY OF Missouri International Center for Psychosocial
Trauma, July 11/1998 - July 12/1998. /
A REPORT BY DR. M. FAROUK EL - SENDIONY:
The International center for psychosocial trauma
at the University of Missouri Columbia has pioneered in the field of war traumatized children in Bosnia and
Herzegovina. In this respect they held three international conferences. The
latest and third international conference was held: July 11, 1998 July 12
1998. The central theme was Traumatized children and their Families:
Lessons from Bosnia. The congress covered everything concerning the
diagnosis, prognosis, treatment and rehabilitation of traumatized children
and their families in the post war Bosnia and Herzegovina. The World
Islamic Association For Mental Health founded fifteen years ago has
sponsored this effort in collaboration with the International Center for
Psychosocial Trauma at the University of Missouri-Columbia.
A number of world-renowned mental health workers
from Western and Islamic countries have participated to bring this conference
to a successful conclusion.
We left having learned much from the congress
about the problems and pressures of traumatized children not only in Bosnia
but also in other war torn areas like Chechnya, Sri Lanka and Iraq. We also
learn much from our contacts about the problems of traumatized children in other
troubled areas in the Global Village, The daily Stresses and traumas are
beyond the ken of many overseas "experts" and sadly, we see the
life of Bosnians, along with the Chechnians, Sri Lankans, Palestinians,
Northern Irish, Albanians in Kosova … etc. as natural laboratories for the
study of stress and trauma disorders, This is no news for the all too
experienced professionals who participated in this congress and concurrent
Group Workshops, where many important issues were raised and a significant
process of co-operative group work began.
Two
major themes were emphasized with respect to traumatized children: With respect to the first theme, Professor Arshad
Husain was cautiously optimistic. One of the most impressive aspects of his
work is his own deep respect, strengthened, instead of diminished after close
analysis of traumatized children from Bosnia - Herzegovina, for the capacity
of traumatized children to heal even their most inexplicable and terrifying
afflictions, themselves.
He also argues persuasively that it is not only essential, but also
possible, for traumatized children to regain control of their lives. Dr. Husain found support
from His Excellency Dr. Osman Sinnanovic the Minister in Tuzla who
presented a paper entitled: "Child War Trauma and Recovery in
Bosnia". Dr. Sinnanovic demonstrated that children who received "invisible
wounds" because they have endured traumatically disastrous events could
be treated (but the earlier, the better). Concerning the second theme of the conference, we
were indeed fortunate for Dr. Godehard Oepen to have had the opportunity to
discuss one of the most perplexing paradoxes, the relationship between
spirituality and biology. Dr. Godehard Oepen did not only emphasize the role
of spirituality in the management of overwhelming trauma but he also analyzed
the biological basis of this role.
Whether you agreed with him or not, the audience
participation reached an all time high.
A special session was devoted for Spirituality and
Faith and Mental Health.
The central
theme was "Islam and Mental Health". {Professors Rashid Chaudhry,
Farouk Sendiony and Ahmed Abou El-Azayem gave special emphasis on the Islamic
approach to treatment, management, and prevention of traumatized children.
Their papers mirrored increasing awareness of the importance of cultural
factors in mental health especially as they affect decision about diagnosis
and treatment.
Hopefully,
these notable mental health workers from Muslim and Western countries,
together with other experienced professionals from the World at Large will
meet in August 1999 in a Post World Psychiatric Congress in Tuzla. This
conference that will follow the World Congress of Psychiatry to be held in
August 1999 will identify mental health issues related to psychosocial
trauma. In this way mental health professionals will contribute to the
building of links which will include Muslims and Westerners in the web of an
increasingly peacefully co-operative to address the task of preventing
ongoing effects of traumatization from snowballing and affecting generations
to come.
Why is this Third International Conference: Working With Traumatized Children
and Their Families in Bosnia Important for the whole Global village? Findings from this International Congress will be very useful and valuable not only for some troubled areas where children are daily traumatized and victimized but also for children in the American inner city as the following study testifies:
q
Lessons from Bosnia:
"Medicine for 724 Children" / DR. M. Farouk
EL-SENDIONY.
Children
have similar stress disorders in Bosnia, the war-torn Kosova, West Bank,
Rwanda, Cambodia and Chicago.
Herewith an understated introduction to the
practice of pediatrics in the inner city: "The young child's attempts to
master the age - appropriate fears of monsters under the bed are severely
undermined when the child needs to sleep under the bed to dodge real bullets
or attempt to screen out the violent fights of his or her caregivers". That is from a recent article in The Journal of
the American Medical Association, which reported a survey of elementary
school-age children in New Orleans: 90 percent had witnessed violence; 70
percent had seen a weapon used; 40 percent had seen a corpse. An estimated 10
to 20 percent of Los Angeles homicides are witnessed by children. And a study
at Boston City Hospital found 10 percent of the children treated in the pediatric
primary care clinic have witnessed a shooting or stabbing before they are 6. BCH has been serving Boston since 1864. Today are
war conditions, and effects, in many urban neighborhoods. A recent study
found similar post - traumatic stress disorders in children in war - torn
Mozambique, Cambodia, the West Bank, Kosova and Chicago. The disorders
include inability to concentrate, persistent sleep disturbance, flashbacks,
sudden startling and hyper vigilance, nihilistic and fatalistic orientation
toward the future, leading to increased risk taking.
To be a witness to violence is to
be a victim of violence. Small wonder that Boston has its share of what
are, known, in the grim argot of today's cities, as "724 children";
children kept at home, indoors, seven days a week, 24 hours a day, because of
the epidemic of violence. Some of the fortunate ones come into contact with
the doctors and social workers at BCH, a hard-used hospital that gives new
meaning to the phrase "family medicine".
Children are patients but families,
such as they may be, are treated. BCH's youngest patients
often ask why the adults in their lives-parents, teachers, police-can't keep
them safe. BCH physicians and social workers regard as a treatable health
problem the consequences of traumatically learning at an early age that the
world is dangerous and unpredictable. A pervasive sense of danger, according
to BCH doctors, causes people to make decisions that seem inexplicable to
people more safely situated.
For example,
some women who are HIV-infected will purposely get pregnant even though there
is a 20 to 30 percent risk of having an infected child. Doctors say those do
not seem so daunting when considered against odds of being shot, raped,
mugged … Besides, for
the HIV-infected mother, childbirth is an affirmation of normality, of the
fact that life goes on. Similarly, for a young inner-city male who sees death
before 20 as common on the mean streets, a baby as an heir is an attractive
idea. A child who learns early to fear the world is apt
to lose his or her natural proclivity for exploration of the world. A
"724 child" may need to be taught how to participate in normal
socializing play that other children learn naturally when growing up where
civil peace prevails. Because we are apt to parent as we are parented, many
unwed mothers or others from the culture of poverty need to be taught and are
movingly eager to learn about talking, playing and reading with children. So
BCH doctors have given children 9.000 books. Reading together can be therapy
for families under the stress of crowding in apartments. A BCH doctor notes that it is common to hear
grandmothers living in poverty say of young children, "They're smart
when they're little. They get dumb when they get older". There is a sad
wisdom behind this. The children of the poor are apt to be developmentally on
a par with middle class children until, say, 2. Then apparent cognitive
deterioration, relative to other children actually, failure to attain
potential is apt to become noticeable. This is a result of various traumas
and emotional and cognitive deprivations, in the withering of or failure to
articulate parental expectations. This deterioration is neither necessary nor
irreversible, but preventing it requires intense, unremitting one-on one contact
whereby a person with the coping skills necessary for flourishing in an urban
setting imparts such skills to someone who lacks them. "We know how to
do this", says a BCH doctor.
"It is fixable. It is just not a quick fix". Urban prudence: It
doubtless seems anomalous, and may be in some ways inefficient, for so many
social services to be dispensed through the urban health care system. But an
inner city hospital often is, for its poorest patients, the point of entry
into the system of services. So BCH's staff find themselves arranging with
the employers of patients for time off for hospital visits; dispensing basic
nutritional counseling; or encouraging families to talk about everything from
goals to heroes; or suggesting strategies of urban prudence. This last, especially,
can be urgent for health: an inner-city person who becomes a victim of
violence has a 40 percent chance of becoming a victim again. This is not only
because of where he or she lives, but because of an inability to step away
from the "bad vibes" of someone else's ugly intent; or because of
an inability to get angry which is normal without acting out the anger,
action being the articulateness of the streets; or because a victim often
looks like a victim.
Social workers here say
that of the appalling numbers of children carrying weapons to school; most
are not aggressive but frightened. (According to a 1990 survey by the Centers
for Disease Control, 1 of every 5 high school students had carried a weapon
and 1 in 20 had carried a gun in a 30 day period). And many of the aggressive
ones have been so desensitized by urban life that they feel alive only when
enjoying a "rep" (Reputation), something most quickly acquired by
instilling fear. So BCH's staff and the International Center for
Psychosocial Trauma at the University of Missouri - Columbia do a lot that is
not, strictly speaking, medicine "But", said one doctor who
attended the Third International Conference On Working With Traumatized
Children And Their Families, "it's all health", said another, This
is not like trauma surgery, where you leap in, stop someone's bleeding and
are a hero in an instant". Yes, but what the International Center for
Psychosocial Trauma at the University of Missouri-Columbia Did in holding
three international conferences on post war Mental Health Issues in Bosnia
and Herzegovina, and holding 4 annual summer intensive training courses in
trauma psychology is much more than medicine, and although it dose not deal
in instantaneous drama, it has its own heroism. Dr. Arshad Husain and his
team are to be commended for their pioneer efforts.
A Special Thank to His Royal Highness: The World Islamic Association for Mental Health
thanks international speakers from Bosnia - Herzegovina, Saudi Arabia, Iraq,
Chechnya, Russia, Egypt, Pakistan, Rwanda and the Unites States. A special thank is offered to His Royal Highness,
Prince Abd El Azeez Ibn Fahd for Helping in the continuing struggle to
cherish and protect the World's Children. Video Tapes of Conference Paper: Because of the significance of the findings of
the Third International Conference on working with traumatized children and
their families for the whole global village, requests have been made for
videotapes of conference proceedings. We do hope that Professor Arshad Husain
may be able to comply with these requests in the future. We suggest that
anyone requiring videotape details of which lectures they require to Dr.
Arshad Husain. The charge for each will include the cost of the tape and
labor required in its production. We also do hope that the findings of the present
congress be introduced to international community. The proceedings may win
more exposure through a Web Site run by the University of Missouri -
Columbia. International Congress On Mental Health to be
held at Tuzla 13 - 15th August 1999: The World Islamic Association for Mental Health
will hold its next international conference at Tuzla, 13 - 15th August 1999.
It will follow the World Psychiatric Congress held by the World Psychiatric
Association. We ask members of the World Islamic Association for Mental
Health to suggest themes for this congress, they may write to:
His
Excellency:
Also
write to: Dr. Jaffer Quershi & Dr. Moh. Afzal Javed, Fax. 00- 44 -1203 -
382609.
Some of
the themes, which are being suggested, are:
The key
to returning to meaningful community life lies in learning how to repair the
frayed community life.
Special Invitations to Attend the International Congress
To Be Held at Tuzla, Bosnia, August 13 - 15th, 1999:
Dr. Gamal Mady Abou El-Azayem, the Secretary General of
WIAMH will extend a special invitation to Dr. Wolfgang G. Jelek, Chairman of
Transcultural Psychiatry Section, World Psychiatric Association to attend
next WIAMH congress at Tuzla.
Transcultural psychiatry can benefit from the perspective
that Islam provides for the treatment and rehabilitation of traumatized
children and their families. A second special invitation will be sent by the
secretary general to Dr. Norman Satirious of the World Psychiatric
Association.
One can only applaud Dr. Osman Sinnanovic
for supporting and accepting to host this International Congress.
q
Section Symposium for
the Egyptian Chapter of the World Islamic Association for Mental Health. Based on the suggestions
of the symposium organizers, the theme of the coming program of the monthly
symposia for the Association's cultural season (October, 98 - June, 99) will
be Science and Religion. The achievements of modern science seem to
contradict religion and undermine faith. But for a growing number of
scientists, the same discoveries offer support for spirituality and belief in
God.
Rather than undercutting faith and a sense of the
spirituality, scientific discoveries are offering support for them. Big-Bang
cosmology, for instance, once read as leaving no room for a Creator,
now implies to Scientists that there is a design and purpose behind the
Universe.
Charles Townes who shared the
Nobel Prize in Physics for discovering the principles that underlie laser
believes that recent discoveries in cosmology reveal "a universe that
fits religious views"
Wednesday,
October 7: The Concept of Science and its effect on Mental Health Prof. M.
Waseem Nassar.
Wednesday,
November 4: A Model of Miraculous Science in the Field of Economy. Prof.
Refaat El-Awady.
Wednesday
Dec. 2, 98: Music and Mental Health.
Musician, Abdel Azeem Owaida.
Wednesday January: 6-1999. Our Beautiful Language: Poet -
Farouk Shousha.
Wednesday
February 3-99. Mental Health and Religious Health.
Prof. Souad Saleh.
Wednesday March 3-99. Guidance for Mental Health, Prof.
Hamed Zahran.
Wednesday April 1-1999: Thanking God's Blessings and
Mental Health: Prof. Aly Mosa.
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Dr. Abu Bakr Badahdah's Support for WIAMH: Dr. Abu Bakr Badahdah
distinguished himself as a regular fundraiser and financial supporter of
WIAMH. He is also an active participant in all international congresses held
by WIAMH around the Global Village.
Call for A Board Meeting to Be Held During the
Pan-African Congress of Psychiatry - Cairo: 13 - 15 Dec 98 Members of WIAMH board are kindly invited to
attend a board meeting during the Pan - African Congress of Psychiatry to be
held in Cairo 13-15 Dec. 1998. The agenda includes the following:
1.
Approval of the Agenda.
2.
Approval of the Minutes of the Board Meeting of
WIAMH Held on 11-7-1998 at Holiday INN, Columbia, Missouri.
3.
Approval of the Budget.
4.
Discussion of the By-Laws.
5.
Discussion of Program of International Congress to
be held at Tuzla 13 - 15 August 1999.
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