<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?><oembed><version><![CDATA[1.0]]></version><provider_name><![CDATA[Occupied Palestine | فلسطين]]></provider_name><provider_url><![CDATA[https://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com]]></provider_url><author_name><![CDATA[occupiedpalestine]]></author_name><author_url><![CDATA[https://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com/author/hajarhajar/]]></author_url><title><![CDATA[Trauma of Palestinian children increasing, say health&nbsp;groups]]></title><type><![CDATA[link]]></type><html><![CDATA[<p>&nbsp;</p>
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<div class="field-item even">The Electronic Intifada |Ramallah |<span class="date-display-single">27 July 2011</span></div>
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<div class="media-image"><img src="https://i2.wp.com/electronicintifada.net/sites/electronicintifada.net/files/styles/large/public/110727-irin.jpg" alt="" /></p>
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<p>Children are doubly affected by traumas related to the Israeli occupation.</p>
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<div class="field-group-format group_credit div group-credit credit speed-none effect-none">(<a href="http://electronicintifada.net/people/anne-paq">Anne Paq</a> /<a href="http://electronicintifada.net/people/activestills">ActiveStills</a>)</div>
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<p><span class="caps">RAMALLAH</span>, occupied West Bank (<span class="caps">IRIN</span>) &#8211; The number of Palestinian children with post-traumatic stress disorder (<span class="caps">PTSD</span>) and other anxiety disorders including depression has increased, according to Médecins Sans Frontières (<span class="caps">MSF</span>) and Palestinian organizations specializing in mental health.</p>
<p>Violations of children’s rights have been documented by the <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/unicef"><span class="caps">UN</span> Children’s Fund (<span class="caps">UNICEF</span>)</a> in Jerusalem, including patterns of killing and injuries, arrest and detention, ill-treatment and torture, displacement and denial of access to health and education services.</p>
<p>Children are doubly affected, sometimes by multiple traumatic events and by the effects of the trauma on their parents and care-givers.</p>
<p><span class="caps">MSF</span> recently increased its number of clinics and staff training in developmental psychology to meet the growing needs of Palestinian children. Fifty-four percent of mental health patients at <span class="caps">MSF</span> clinics in the Gaza Strip were under the age of 12 in 2010, it said. Over a third of the cases <span class="caps">MSF</span> treats in Gaza and over half in <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/location/nablus">Nablus</a> in the West Bank are severe, and affect the functioning of a person in daily life.</p>
<p><span class="dquo" style="margin-left:-6px;">“</span>More than half of consultations in Gaza and in Nablus are for children under 18 years old, so far in 2011,” said Hélène Thomas, psychological coordinator for <span class="caps">MSF</span>-France in Jerusalem.</p>
<p><span class="dquo" style="margin-left:-6px;">“</span>Children and adolescents have particular symptoms of psychological distress, like bedwetting, nightmares, learning difficulties [reading and speech], concentration and memory problems and therefore academic failure, or even aggressive behavior,” said Thomas.</p>
<p><span class="caps">MSF</span> provided 6,099 psychological consultations and treated 702 new patients in 2010 at their six centers in Gaza and one in Nablus, compared to 4,912 consultations in 2009.</p>
<p><span class="dquo" style="margin-left:-6px;">“</span>Nearly half of <span class="caps">MSF</span> patients under 15 years old in Gaza were treated for <span class="caps">PTSD</span> and nearly a third were treated for other anxiety disorders in 2010,” said Thomas, and “about a fifth of patients under 15 years old in Nablus were treated for <span class="caps">PTSD</span>.”</p>
<p><strong>Harassment from settlers and soldiers</strong></p>
<p>In Gaza, 74 percent of cases in 2010 came one year after a violent event. In Nablus a high level of anxiety cases (more than 40 percent of all <span class="caps">MSF</span> patients) were diagnosed with anxiety related to settler harassment and military incursions.</p>
<p><span class="dquo" style="margin-left:-6px;">“</span>Children form an emotional association with symbols of a traumatic event,” said Thomas, “like when Israeli soldiers raid a home with dogs, and after the child develops a phobia of dogs, linking dogs to the event and fear associated with it.”</p>
<p>Mental health professionals from the Palestinian Treatment and Rehabilitation Center for Victims of Torture (<span class="caps">TRC</span>) also reported that children receiving mental health care overwhelmingly suffered from <span class="caps">PTSD</span> and other anxiety disorders.</p>
<p><span class="caps">TRC</span> treated 3,800 patients across the West Bank in 2010, about 15 percent of them children. The center is partnered with the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme (<span class="caps">GCMHP</span>).</p>
<p>The <span class="caps">TRC</span>’s team of 36 psychologists and six psychiatrists say a popular form of psychotherapy — eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (<span class="caps">EMDR</span>), developed in the <span class="caps">US</span> in 1987 — is proving successful in the center’s treatment of children.</p>
<p><span class="caps">EMDR</span>, often used in conjunction with cognitive therapy, creates bilateral stimulation (induced by, for example, eye-movements, tones or tapping) between the right and left sides of the brain during sessions to resolve the development of trauma-related disorders caused by exposure to distressing events such as rape or military combat.</p>
<p>According to the <span class="caps">EMDR</span> Institute founder Francine Shapiro, when a traumatic experience occurs, it may overwhelm usual cognitive and neurological coping mechanisms. The memory and associated stimuli of the event are inadequately processed and dysfunctionally stored.</p>
<p>Psychologists from <span class="caps">TRC</span> and the East Jerusalem Young Men’s Christian Association (<span class="caps">YMCA</span>) travelled to California in May to begin certification in <span class="caps">EMDR</span> training with Shapiro. In about a year’s time <span class="caps">TRC</span> will begin to train Palestinian mental health professionals in <span class="caps">EMDR</span> techniques.</p>
<p><span class="caps">EMDR</span> therapy aims to process these distressing memories, reduce their lingering influence and enable clients to develop coping mechanisms, said Khader Rasras, <span class="caps">TRC</span> executive director and clinical psychologist.</p>
<p><span class="dquo" style="margin-left:-6px;">“</span>I ask the child to recall the memories of the traumatic event in their minds, or for younger children the parent may recall the event,” explained Rasras, and “while reviewing the events chronologically the child follows my back-and-forth finger movements with their eyes.”</p>
<p><strong>Girl sees dad arrested</strong></p>
<p>After Lina, an eight-year-old from Ramallah, witnessed her father forcibly removed by Israeli soldiers from the family home about a year ago she was diagnosed with acute <span class="caps">PTSD</span>. He remains in administrative detention, imprisoned without charge or trial.</p>
<p><span class="dquo" style="margin-left:-6px;">“</span>Soldiers kicked in the door and began searching,” recalled Lina, “and when my father put his hands behind his head I held on to his leg. A soldier pulled me away by my hair.”</p>
<p>After Lina developed a stuttering problem, bed-wetting and lost weight, her mother brought her to <span class="caps">TRC</span>.</p>
<p><span class="dquo" style="margin-left:-6px;">“</span>Lina responds well when I tap on her right and left knees,” said Rasras. “<span class="caps">EMDR</span> is well suited for children since it is interactive, often with hand-games and drawing, and children do not have sophisticated memory networks.”</p>
<p>Mental health professionals from <span class="caps">GCMHP</span> have yet to be granted permission by the Israeli authorities to exit Gaza for training. Under more than four years of strict <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/gaza-siege">blockade</a>, Gaza health professionals are rarely allowed to leave Gaza for training or education.</p>
<p>Cultural sensitivities are also a barrier to mental health care, although <span class="caps">MSF</span> reports that it is easier for parents to bring children for treatment, and often seek treatment themselves after they see results.</p>
<p><span class="caps">TRC</span> head Rasras said he offered to place a barrier between himself and female patients, such as a handkerchief, when taping their hands or shoulders to help patients feel comfortable. Even then, the social stigma of mental health care in West Bank rural areas is often too great for many patients to continue treatment.</p>
<p><em>This item comes to you via <span class="caps">IRIN</span>, a <span class="caps">UN</span> humanitarian news and information service, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies. All <span class="caps">IRIN</span> material may be reposted or reprinted free-of-charge; refer to the <a href="http://www.irinnews.org/copyright.aspx">copyright page</a> for conditions of use. <span class="caps">IRIN</span> is a project of the <span class="caps">UN</span> Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.</em></p>
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