The Center for Victims of Torture (CVT) has instituted an intensive training and supervision model for refugees to develop local capacity for providing understanding and skills for mental health support to rebuild communities after massive human rights atrocities. CVT has instituted the training model in refugee camps in Guinea and Sierra Leone for refugees from Sierra Leone and Liberia. The model combines intensive, hands-on training of refugees with ongoing supervision.

These refugee “mental health specialists” build their capabilities, provide individual and group therapy for traumatized individuals and use their skills toward rebuilding their own communities and support systems.  This notebook may provide tactical ideas to those assisting communities with refugees and internally displaced people who have witnessed or been victims of human rights atrocities to rebuild lives.

Year of Publication: 2004
Author(s): Binta Barry and Nancy L. Pearson