Social Work Practice With War Affected Children

This book explains the effects of war and armed conflict on individual children and their family system, and how culturally responsive social work practice should take into account the diversity and heterogeneity of their needs and lived experiences. Unpacking social work practice with children and families affected by war and migration, the volume provides a valuable toolkit for practitioners, educators, researchers, and service-providers that work with war-affected populations around the globe. The contributions suggest that fostering a family approach, allotting careful attention to context and culture, and linking the arts and participation with social work practice, can all be vital to enhancing the research, education, and practice around working with children and families affected by armed conflict. Providing a critical reflection of social work education and practice, this book will be of interest to practitioners in the field of social work, as well as researchers studying the social effects of migration. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Family Social Work.

Societal turbulence, state collapse, religious and ethnic conflict, poverty, hunger, and social exclusion all underlie children's involvement in armed conflict. Drawing from empirical studies in eleven conflict-ridden countries, including Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Colombia, Uganda, Palestine, Somalia, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Sudan, and South Sudan, Children Affected by Armed Conflict crosses cultures and contexts to capture a range of perspectives on the realities of armed conflict and its aftermath for children. Children Affected by Armed Conflict upends traditional views by emphasizing the experience of girls as well as boys, the unique social and contextual backgrounds of war-affected children, and the resilience and agency such children often display. Including children who are victims of, participants in, and witnesses to armed conflict in their analyses, the contributors to this volume highlight innovative methodologies that directly involve war-affected children in the research process. This validates the perspectives of children and ensures more effective outcomes in postwar reintegration and recovery. Deficits-based models do not account for the realities many war-affected children face. The alternative approaches presented in this edited collection—which acknowledge the realities of both trauma and resilience—aim to generate more effective policies and intervention strategies in the face of a growing global public health crisis.

Armed conflicts continue to wreak havoc on children and families around the world with profound effects. In 2017, 420 million children—nearly one in five—were living in conflict-affected areas, an increase in 30 million from the previous year. The recent surge in war-induced migration, referred to as a “global refugee crisis” has made migration a highly politicized issue, with refugee populations and host countries facing unique challenges. We know from research related to asylum seeking families that it is vital to think about children and families in relation to what it means to stay together, what it means for parents to be separated from their children, and the kinds of everyday tensions that emerge in living in dangerous, insecure, and precarious circumstances. In Global Child, the authors draw on what they have learned through their collaborative undertakings, and highlight the unique features of participatory, arts-based, and socio-ecological approaches to studying war-affected children and families, demonstrating the collective strength as well as the limitations and ethical implications of such research. Building on work across the Global South and the Global North, this book aims to deepen an understanding of their tri-pillared approach, and the potential of this methodology for contributing to improved practices in working with war-affected children and their families.

Transformative Social Work Practice presents an innovative and integrative approach towards critically reflective practice with an interweaving of micro, mezzo, and macro applications to real world demands. Authors Erik Schott and Eugenia L. Weiss explore issues commonly addressed by social workers, including health, mental health, addictions, schools, and family and community violence, while challenging assumptions and promoting ethically-driven, evidence-based practice perspectives to advocate for social justice and reduce disparities. The book is about redefining social work practice to meet the current and complex needs of diverse and vulnerable individuals, families, and communities in order to enhance their strengths in an era of unprecedented technological growth, globalization, and change.

The importance of integrating indigenous knowledge systems into mainstream social work and ensuring context-specific, culturally relevant practice has long been emphasised in Africa and the Global South. This book, based on empirical research, presents a selection of indigenous and innovative models and approaches of problem solving that will inspire social work practice and education. At the core of these models lies a conceptual understanding of the community as the overarching principle for effective social work and social development in African contexts. The empirical part of the book has a focus on East Africa and highlights case examples from Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Burundi, and Kenya. The book is intended for use by those involved in social work and social development practice, social work educators, students, as well as policy makers. It is relevant not just for audiences in Africa but also the global social work community, especially those interested in promoting culturally relevant social work.

This book provides an overview of theoretical, empirical, and clinical conceptualizations of mental health following exposure to human rights violations (HRV). There are currently hundreds of millions of individuals affected by war and conflict across the globe, and over 68 million people who are forcibly displaced. The field of refugee and post-conflict mental health is growing exponentially, as researchers investigate the factors that impact on psychological disorders in these populations, and design and evaluate new treatments to reduce psychological distress. This volume will be a substantial contribution to the literature on mental health in refugee and post-conflict populations, as it details the state of the evidence regarding the mental health of war survivors living in areas of former conflict as well as refugees and asylum-seekers.

The Research Handbook of Children and Armed Conflict adeptly explores childrens’ lived realities of armed conflict and its aftermath. Featuring empirical, conceptual and policy analyses alongside moving first-hand accounts of the experiences of war-affected children and youth, it highlights the urgent need for advocacy and action.

This report is concerned with reviewing psychosocial concepts in research related to humanitarian work, with particular emphasis on research related to children affected by prolonged violence and armed conflict.