How do children and survivors recover from the ongoing trauma of wars?

Amman, Jordan - The experience of trauma resulting from war and political violence in the Arab region, especially in the Palestinian territories, differs from the traditional perceptions developed by trauma sciences in Western contexts. Dr. Samah Jaber, a psychiatric consultant, spoke in an interview with the Arabic news site Afaq News about the impact of war traumas on children and the journey of recovery amid ongoing war, during the "War Traumas" conference held in Amman, organized by the Early Light Foundation in collaboration with the Hussein Cancer Foundation over the two days of September 19 and 20, under the patronage of Princess Ghida Talal.

Jaber previously served as the head of the mental health unit at the Palestinian Ministry of Health and is currently an associate clinical professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at George Washington University. Jaber stated that many Western studies on trauma stem from the experience of the returning soldier who, after the fighting ends, returns to a safe place, while civilians live under bombardment and political violence in conditions that do not necessarily allow them to access safety or transition to a post-war phase, especially in the Middle East and the Palestinian territories.

Jaber explained the differences in the psychological interventions required for children in the region and the Palestinian territories by imposing approaches, questioning: "How can we achieve psychological trauma treatment without a safe place, a post-war phase, and a promising future?". Jaber pointed out that the scale of those affected by political violence makes collective work, alongside individual interventions, more realistic, especially with children and adults, stating: "We cannot place all those affected by political violence in individual therapy chairs."

Jaber places special importance on children, considering that they are affected by trauma to a greater extent than adults, as their mental and psychological development is not yet complete, in addition to not having the same psychological defense mechanisms developed by adults, and their ability to comprehend the reasons for what is happening around them remains limited. Jaber rejects viewing children's mental health in isolation from their surrounding environment, explaining that targeting the family and community can lead to role confusion within the family, whereby the child themselves may become a caregiver.

Jaber considered that trauma in the Palestinian experience does not only transfer from one generation to another, but may coincide with traumas between different generations at the same time, noting that justice represents a part of the recovery process within the stages of psychological treatment, but the delay of justice or the possibility of its non-fulfillment should not delay the provision of support to survivors.