Page 193 - Creating Spiritual and Psychological Resilience
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162            Creating Spiritual and Psychological Resilence


                 those affected by the Tsunami may react poorly to alien approaches …
                 external (as well as internal) groups must always pay careful attention to
                 local cultures, religions, and traditional ways of coping with incidents,
                 such as the tsunami.”
               3. “Traditional healers are culturally and linguistically similar to their cli-
                 ents, share the cosmology of their clients, and generally have a holistic
                 approach to healing especially useful to conflict-affected populations
                 who may suffer a variety of traumatic impacts and symptoms, including
                 emotional, psychological, physical/somatic, social, and spiritual ones”
                 (de Jong, 2007, p. 217).
               4. “From  a  public  health  perspective,  traditional  healers  often  have  the
                 advantage that they are easily accessible from a cultural and geographic
                 point of view” (de Jong, 2007, p. 217).


              There  is  great  scope  for  IPR  appropriately  applied  (i.e.,  ethnomedi-
            cally competent) spiritual care and preexisting rituals retooled (or retra-
            ditioned) to fit disaster contexts. As the primary mechanism (under the
            United Nations’ resolutions 46/182 and 48/57) for interagency coordina-
            tion of humanitarian assistance, the Inter-Agency Standing Committee
            (IASC) has laid out important guidelines for psychosocial best practices:



                  Box 4: thE iasC’s guidElinEs on mEntal hEalth and
                     psyChosoCial support in EmErgEnCy sEttings
              Encourages relief workers to interface with appropriate spiritual practices
              and  local  healers.  Relevant  warnings  and  recommendations  from  IASC’s
              Guidelines include:

               1.  Engaging with local religion or culture often challenges nonlocal relief
                 workers to consider world views very different from their own. Because
                 some local practices cause harm (for example, in contexts where spiritu-
                 ality and religion are politicized), humanitarian workers should think
                 critically and support local practices and resources only if they fit with
                 international standards of human rights. (IASC, 2007, Action Sheet 5.3)
               2. Ignoring such healing practices, on the other hand, can prolong distress
                 and potentially cause harm by marginalizing helpful cultural ways of
                 coping. In many contexts, working with religious leaders and resources
                 is an essential part of emergency psychosocial support. (IASC, 2007,
                 Action Sheet 5.3)
               3.  Blending therapies in order to arrive at ethnomedically competent inte-
                 grative psychosocial resilience is encouraged in Action Sheet 5.3 as well:
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