The past decade has seen tremendous progress in the understanding, identification, evaluation, and treatment of youngsters recovering from disasters. In spite of enhanced efforts to train mental health personnel for postdisaster assessment and intervention in the "predisaster" stage (i.e., before a disaster occurs; Saylor, Belter, & Stokes, 1997;, many of the professionals who find themselves working with disaster victims do so because natural or human-made disasters strike literally close to home, thrusting them into the role of "instant experts" (Rozensky, Sloan, Schwartz, & Kowalski, 1993). Although some of the assessment methods for screening and evaluating children and adolescents in traditional mental health settings have been used with children exposed to disaster, recent disaster literature suggests that different approaches, which target specific dimensions of stress (including the properties of the stressor itself as well as the child's and family's perceptions of it), coping, and behavioral and emotional reactions, may be more useful in the postdisaster environment.Many good summaries have been written of the clinical and research progress to date in the area of children and disasters (e.g.,
The current study identified factors that played a significant role in decisions to separate a child from his/her primary caretakers for 51 social service caseworkers. Participants rated and ranked the importance of 35 child risk/well-being factors used in recent child separation dispositions. Results indicated that boundary setting with a perpetrator of abuse and parental motivation played a significant role in decision-making. These preliminary findings suggest the need to prioritize services aimed at the promotion of the non-maltreating parentÕs limit setting with the perpetrator of abuse, as well as caretaker motivation/cooperation.
The incidence of episodes of harassment and rape among military populations has only recently been examined. In the present study, a sample of 336 female veterans in a primary care setting was assessed. The incidences of lifetime sexual victimization, anxiety, depression, and impact of trauma for victims of specific trauma contexts are presented. Results of the study indicated that female veterans with a history of cumulative rape experiences and civilian rape experiences are more at risk for anxiety and depression than those with only a military experience of rape. No significant differences were found for impact of event scores for different contexts of rape, however. Reporting of trauma was not associated with psychological well-being for women veterans. The results highlight the role of the socioenvironmental context of abuse as an important variable to examine, especially in military populations.
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