Inge Missmahl will present her Jungian based psycho-therapeutic psychosocial counselling approach, which she developed during the last 8 years in Afghanistan, by training firstly 30 men and women and opening up 15 clinics in Kabul. Over 11 000 people were treated without medication and with good results during 2 years with 5-8 sessions. The good results have motivated the Afghan Ministry of Health to integrate this approach into the Afghan Health system. The effectivedness of the approach was backed up by a research.
This approach has been culturally adapted to Haiti and counselling centers will be started there this year.
More than 30 years of war ond ongoing insecurity have left the Afghan population with a high mental health burden. Sixty to eighty per cent of the Afghan population suffer from symptoms of depression, anxiety, fear and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Furthermore Afghanistan is among the least developed countries in the world with a ranking of 181 (out of 182) on the Human Development Index 2009. Almost 30 years of war has left the lives of more than two generations of Afghans totally disrupted. The majority of the Afghan population faces severe hardship. Many families have been rendered (partially) dysfunctional due to continued stress, exposure to traumatizing events, loss of beloved, homes and jobs, drug abuse, migration and poverty-related suffering.
The importance of mental health and psycho-social issues regarding the country’s stability and peace-building process becomes clear when one looks at the impact of the above mentioned problems on families. The behaviour of people suffering from symptoms of post traumatic stress, changes the interaction within the family and other social circles, leading to problems such as social isolation, severe constraints for income generation and unemployment, higher likelihood to drug abuse, increased conflicts in their communities and domestic violence. These problems often have a strong negative impact on children’s and adolescents’ developmental perspectives, education and rights, undermining their chances to overcome the poverty trap. The feeling of not being able to influence one’s own life and the sensation of loss of cultural identity became a clear invitation to fundamentalist ideologies. In improving the mental health status of the Afghan population we can actively reduce the ongoing violence and conflicts in the families, which often lead to dysfunctional and dissocial behaviour and we will contribute to an improvement of security and peace.