WFMH Collaborating Center

The International Center for Psychosocial Trauma at the University of Missouri, USA, was accepted provisionally as a WFMH Collaborating Center at the May Board meeting. Professor Syed Arshad Husain, M.D., Director of the Center, led a team of experts on a ten-day visit to Tirana, Albania, in June to train teachers and community leaders in techniques to work with traumatized refugee children. This was Professor Husain’s second mission to Albania within two months. He has plans for at least two more trips to the region this year in an effort to train up to 500 teachers, and expects to continue the program in Albania and Kosovo over the next four years.

The focus of the program is to enable teachers to offer children ways to express and cope with the trauma they experienced because of the war and violence in Kosovo. “One of the most important factors promoting resiliency in children is having a significant adult in their life take an interest in them, care for them, and listen to them,” says Dr. Husain. “That’s why we’ve selected teachers and other community leaders to be the target of our training. The training gives these significant adults the tools to impact a large number of children’s lives.”

The effort to train teachers to help traumatized children (“Teachers as Therapists”) is one of three different inter-connected programs developed by the International Center for Psychosocial Trauma. The second effort involves intensive training in trauma psychology at the Center for selected teachers and mental health professionals from Albania and Kosovo. This summer’s “Training the Trainer” course was given in Columbia, Missouri, USA on 12-17 July. Ten Kosovar/Albanian teachers and mental health professionals were invited to attend. The Center plans to invite Kosovar/Albanian teachers each summer for the next three years.

The third program involves setting up a Counseling Center in Tirana staffed by a psychiatrist, psychologist and social workers, which will serve as a treatment center for severely traumatized cases as well as a resource center for the Teachers as Therapists program. The work will include networking with existing counseling services in Tirana, collaborating with the Ministry of Health in Albania, and expanding services into Kosovo as soon as circumstances there permit.

Barry Jay, Ph.D.