What we do

Global mental health
SalusWorld responds to manmade and natural disasters by providing emergency emotional support and long-term psychosocial training to people and communities in crisis because we recognized that the psychological and emotional scars of such events — wounds that are invisible to the naked eye and may continue in people’s minds long after the fighting has ended — have been neglected for far too long.
Since 2006 SalusWorld has created and implemented a comprehensive training and support programs to address the emotional trauma of affected individuals. SalusWorld’s philosophy is a departure, from traditional humanitarian aid interventions in both approach and style, as the primarily philosophy is to build the capacity of local NGOs and community based organizations already offering important health and social services to their communities. With the support of international donors, SalusWorld has established a number of partnerships in South East Asia and trained 150 local volunteer counselors to help bridge the cultural divide between SalusWorld volunteer consultants and the communities in which we hope to assist.
Training local counselors, which is at the heart of SalusWorld’s mental health approach, has been a crucial component to building up the community’s capacity to deal with the ongoing conflict and aftermath of traumatic events. Through a mix of individual counseling, support groups, family interventions, psycho-education campaigns and coordination with traditional healers and community leaders SalusWorld programs aim to help displaced, oppressed or affected communities restore bonds among family, friends, community, and society. The South East Asia initiative has reached more than 1,400 people to date.
Our projects can be described in three areas: mental health assistance, community outreach and capacity building.

Mental health assistance
Through culturally responsive education, individual interventions and support groups, SalusWorld instructs indigenous trainers, medics, community and religious leaders and teachers how to conduct mental health assessments, provide counseling services and manage crises. Trauma therapy and counseling services are also provided to local patients with traumatic and psychosocial symptoms, as well as local leaders and mental health trainees as a treatment and as a training tool.

Community outreach
In addition to and as a consequence of our trainings, we have come face to face with the desperate psychosocial circumstances of those whom we train. Our community outreach activities are an effort to support the efforts of our community partners with their psychosocial goals and objectives. We have responded by supporting backpacking medics, trainings trainers and teachers and supporting traditional healers and community leaders.

Capacity building
Together, in partnership with local organizations, SalusWorld works to facilitate a scheme for the effective implementation of pyshco-social initiatives focused on emotional wellbeing, trauma recovery and human rights advocacy in a culturally appropriate manner. In particular, we focus on strengthening and developing trained human resources and institutional capacities in terms of techniques and skills necessary to carry out the assessment and management of psychosocial needs. Our sustainable programs involve the transfer of know-how, the development of appropriate facilities, training in sciences related to safety in social services.

Professional mental health volunteer consultants
Generally, SalusWorld’s mental health volunteer consultants provide psychological education and support to local counselors who are attempting to assist their neighbors. They also bring home-based care to people too traumatized to leave their homes and establish walk-in clinics. Within our mental health programs, SalusWorld volunteer consultants design their interventions to account for cultural differences.

Integrating mental health care
In most cases, mental health specialists work within local programs and systems that have been created by local experts. In many of the programs SalusWorld consultants train community health workers, teachers and health workers to identify and support survivors of sexual violence, torture, displacement and loss.

Supporting HIV/AIDS patients
Mental health care is an integral part of SalusWorld HIV/AIDS-treatment programs called +Positive Living Projects. After launching an HIV/AIDS treatment program medical providers quickly realize that mans of the needs (adjustment, medication compliance, disclosure, etc) are mental health issues that their health staff does not have the time or expertise to deal with. SalusWorld’s +Positive Living Project is a unique initiative available to supplement current treatment centers with the complicated psychosocial needs of this population.

Coping with natural disasters
SalusWorld sends mental health teams to help people cope with the traumatic stress of natural disasters. Currently, teams are working with families that have been left homeless by the cyclone in the Delta Region of Burma.

Care for the neglected and vulnerable
SalusWorld operates mental health programs not only in response to conflicts and natural disasters, but also for the most vulnerable groups in relatively stable societies. SalusWorld also works refugees and immigrants in the United States.

Microcredit partnerships

Photography workshops
In June 2010 SalusWorld consultant Hillary Prag conducted photography Workshops as a Clinical Intervention for Adolescent Trauma among Shan Refugees.
SalusWorld’s photography workshops are offered to children and adolescents in marginalized communities around the world. Ms. Prag, the creator and implementer of these workshops launched her first project in Seattle in 2006. From there she worked with at-risk youth in Boston; Denver; Port-au-Prince, Haiti and most recently Wiang Wai, Thailand.
The goal of the photography program is to equip care givers with the skills necessary to lead a photojournalism workshop comprised of traumatized adolescents in their community. Photography is used to help participants better understand each other’s lives and to make visible their unique struggles and perspectives. Participants move from being victims of their trauma to advocates for themselves and others with similar stories.
Our photography workshops focused on a small group of adolescents, ages 16-20. The workshops lasted from five to 12 weeks, meeting at least once a week depending on the particpant’s schedules.
The children who have participated in these workshops have been able to share their experiences with the world visually, and are considered to be pioneers in their community for having had the courage to tell the vulnerable stories that everyone holds inside.Half the proceeds from the sale of any artwork always goes back to the children for their education and well-being. The photos from the Thailand project are also available in hardcover and can be ordered here.
If you are interested in having SalusWorld or resident photographer/trainer, Ms. Prag, visit your organization to help implement psychosocial projects, training or photography workshops please contact our director of field operations, Dr. Gwen Vogel, at gvogel@salusworld.org.

SalusWorld mental health activities: A brief overview
SalusWorld consultant experiences over the last decade, working in diverse settings such as South Africa, Bosnia, Liberia, Nigeria, Northern Thailand and Burma has demonstrated clearly the benefit of these programs for people who have directly experienced violence on a mass scale. For SalusWorld, psychosocial programs are not only an essential response to human suffering but are part of an integrated approach for medical care and development.
SalusWorld activity in mental health care and awareness has increased in profile, emphasizing the severe traumas suffered by many of the world’s population living in unstable political situations or just being at the location of a natural disaster. SalusWorld care has extended beyond the basic parameters of medical care, food and shelter and has encompassed the issues surrounding the mental state of people who have survived.

Reflect
SalusWorld publishes a quarterly newsletter entitled Reflect to give readers a view of the range of activities that have been undertaken in mental health care. The diversity of the programs underscores the situations faced in many of the emergencies as well as the scope of mental health programs that are often undertaken.

07/08/2010 - Reflect: Looking back
02/03/2010 - The Power of Pro Bono: Honoring our Supporters and Volunteers
09/08/2009 - SalusWorld September newsletter

Working with SalusWorld: Putting principles into practice