 About Rehabilitation
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Rehabilitation Victims of Torture: Definition, requirements and
goals
What is rehabilitation?
The aim of rehabilitation is to empower the torture victim to resume as full a life as possible. To this end, rehabilitation centres use a variety of different treatment approaches, taking into account victims' individual needs, as well as the cultural, social, and political environment.
Rehabilitation requires a holistic approach
The rehabilitation of torture victims requires addressing their needs in a broader context. Rehabilitation centres offer victims multi-disciplinary support and counselling, including:
- medical attention and psychotherapeutic treatment
- trauma treatment and psychosocial support
- legal services, restitution and redress
- social reintegration
The family members become secondary victims and also need support
In the worst case, torture can affect several
generations. The physical and mental after-effects of torture often place great
strain on the entire family and society. Therefore, other members of the
victim's family – in particular the spouse and children – are also offered
treatment and counselling. Children are particularly vulnerable. They often
suffer from a feeling of guilt or personal responsibility for what has happened.
Sexual torture is used against men as well as women and cause serious long-term
health problems as well as difficulties in the relationship with the victim's
spouse.
Rebuilding the life of someone whose dignity has been destroyed takes time and
therefore long-term material, medical, psychological and social support is
needed.
Rehabilitation plays a key role
The impact of rehabilitation efforts on society is often far-reaching. Torture is a political act, and the rehabilitation of torture victims is thus often also perceived as political. Rehabilitation centres therefore play a key role in promoting democracy, co-existence and respect for human rights. They provide support and hope, and act as a symbol of triumph over the man-made terror of torture which can hold back the democratic development in entire societies. A centre can play a role in the promotion of democracy and at the same time help to prevent torture through the following activities:
- awareness-raising
- documenting and reporting cases of torture to relevant institutions
- raising media attention through contacts and campaigns
- campaigns with the public at large
- local community awareness
- training of health and legal professionals, prison staff, the military and police
- education about the need for rehabilitation, the prevention of torture and basic human rights
Reconstructing broken societies
In those instances where torture has been used in a systematic and widespread manner, whole societies can be traumatised. Years of repression, conflict and war have often destroyed the usual support networks in a society. Rehabilitation programmes for torture victims need to be closely integrated with broader community-oriented initiatives for reconstruction of post-conflict societies. Providing psychosocial support and redress to victims of torture and trauma can help reconstruct broken societies. Health professionals and other caregivers need to collaborate closely with local authorities, communities, social service providers, legal structures and human rights NGOs to address the needs of torture victims and their families.
United Nations Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture:
http://www.ohchr.org
from http://www.ohchr.org/english/about/funds/torture/assistance.htm
Type of assistance
Psychological assistance is designed to help victims of Torture to overcome the psychological trauma that they have experienced. This type of assistance is supported by various kinds of therapies. Individual therapy, whether based on clinical, psychoanalytical, behavioral or other care, is essentially designed to enable the victim to step back from the trauma, learn to identify and accept it and gradually become reintegrated into society and/or the working world. Psychiatric support, together with drug treatment, is frequently offered to patients suffering emotional collapse. Psychologists and psychiatrists are quite often specialists in the treatment of torture victims and post-traumatic stress management. That expertise enables them to gain the victims’ trust and to respond appropriately to their particular symptoms. Alongside these forms of individual therapy, many organizations also offer family or group therapy on a case-by-case basis. Aside from their significant cathartic effect, by allowing victims to share their painful experiences with other people with a similar history, such therapies also serve a social purpose, enabling the victim to restore ties that are quite often severed by an array of clinical symptoms caused by being tortured.
One important aspect of any therapeutic work with victims of torture is that it is generally a long-term undertaking. Indeed, the psychological aftermath of the trauma continues to affect torture victims throughout their lives. A torture victim is never cured psychologically, however good the treatment he receives. It is more appropriate to speak of improving the victim’s condition through the means that he is given to cope with the trauma and be able to live with it.
Medical assistance is designed to treat the physical after-effects of torture. After the first diagnosis is made by a general practitioner and the symptoms resulting from the torture undergone are determined, treatment is generally provided by specialists (in the fields of accident and emergency services, surgery, orthopaedics, neurology, dermatology, gynaecology, urology, etc.). Initial care is often accompanied by paramedical treatment (physiotherapy, nursing assistance). Such assistance is provided either directly by organizations financed by the Fund or through partner health-care organizations and professionals to whom patients are referred, with the organization covering the expenses related to treatment (as well as transportation in certain cases).
Social assistance complements the two above-mentioned types by enabling victims, through various approaches, to end the marginalized state in which many find themselves. Social assistance ensures victims a minimum of facilities allowing them to survive in a society with which they sometimes no longer have a connection. Such assistance can consist, inter alia, of professional training designed to give victims a specialty of their choice (computer science, sewing, secretarial work, mechanics and others), subsequently giving them the opportunity to find employment again. Sometimes, a specific category of victims is targeted, for example women tortured in a prison setting, and their needs are identified through a participatory process. Micro-projects are then developed with the help of social workers, to enable such women, once they are released from prison, to engage in activities that meet previously identified needs. Such micro-projects include, for example, short-term training courses or the establishment of an income-generating project. Such assistance has also been shown to play an essential therapeutic role, enabling victims to regain confidence in their abilities and recover their human dignity.
Legal assistance has several aspects. In the case of torture victims seeking asylum , it helps in establishing the files required by the host country’s authorities to obtain refugee status and in following up their applications, through the highest national authorities dealing with asylum issues.
Generally, Fund assistance contributes to combating impunity by seeking reparation and compensation for victims through legal representation of victims before the competent national, regional and international authorities. The Fund’s grants can cover the costs of lawyers, courts, translations and procedure.
Financial assistance, which may be direct or indirect, is often provided in addition to other kinds of assistance offered. In the very poorest regions, financial aid quite often enables the victims to gain easier access to other types of assistance when their basic needs for survival are partly met. The approaches are very diverse and adapted to local conditions, and meet very different needs. In some cases, assistance is distributed in the form of nominal amounts that allow unemployed victims to cover their own and their relatives’ basic needs (such as food, clothing and housing). In other cases, the financial assistance helps to pay the school costs of victims’ children, or of victims themselves when they are unable to work as a result of the serious physical and psychological aftermath of torture, as well as a modest daily food ration during the school year. Indirect financial assistance can also include reimbursing the travel costs of victims for regular trips to receive medical or psychological care or for relatives of torture victims to visit them in the places where they are being held. Finally, other forms of financial assistance that some victims receive include ad hoc donations in kind (such as food, utensils, tools and clothing) and income-generating projects run directly by the victims.