Worldwide, most trauma work is done by lay persons and not by trained psychosocial professionals. Community workers, teachers, human rights defenders or health personnel: they all are confronted with the suffering of their clients and often are not sure how best to react.  

 

All these groups ask for simple steps that they can follow. Simple answers are difficult to come up with for problems as complex as trauma. But still, the wish to have some basic rules and tools is highly understandable.

 

“Restoring Dignity -  Sinani Handbook for Trauma Support Workers “ provides such guidance. It gives clear answers to questions that are frequently asked by persons who work with survivors of violence: how to speak to a raped woman, how to understand domestic violence, how to talk to a person whose relative was killed, what to do when a person breaks down?

 

http://www.survivors.org.za/images/stories/trauma_support_handbook_sec_1.pdf

http://www.survivors.org.za/images/stories/trauma_support_handbook_sec_2.pdf

 

The handbook was published by the South African NGO that works in KwaZulu Natal with people and communities affected by violence and by HIV/Aids. http://www.survivors.org.za/

 

 

 

This entry was posted on Monday, May 4th, 2009 at 2:21 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.