Social work practice with war-affected children and families: the importance of family, culture, arts, and participatory approaches

Abstract

War and armed conflict not only gravely impact individual children, but the entire family system, with the impacts of war further compounded by the complexities of displacement, flight, migration, and resettlement to new contexts. These processes can cause destabilizing ruptures in the social fabric, networks, and services that support and protect children and families, ultimately hindering their potential protective capacities and potentially contributing to negative long-term intergenerational effects. The family plays a vital role in shaping children's mental health and well-being in conflict and post conflict settings, and thus the family needs to be accorded greater consideration in designing psychosocial support services for war-affected populations. With growing numbers of war-affected refugees resettling in Canada and the U.S., it is critical that psychosocial programs and interventions address their unique needs, as individuals, families, and communities. Moreover, there is a greater need for culturally responsive practice with war-affected refugee children and families that accounts for the diversity and heterogeneity of their needs and lived experiences. In this Special Issue entitled: "Children of War and their Families: Perspectives on Social Work Practice & Education", we suggest that factors such as fostering a family approach, allotting careful attention to context and culture, alongside an emphasis on linking the arts and participation with social work practice, can be key social work contributions to research, education, and practice with this important and often overlooked population.

An arts-based approach with youth born of genocidal rape in Rwanda: The river of life as an autobiographical mapping tool

“…Choosing the "river of life" as an autobiographical mapping tool Words and narrative alone are often unable to capture the complexities and horror of war and genocide (Denov and Shevell, 2019). This was noted during our initial "testing" of our interview guide, where participants appeared to struggle to find the words to convey their experiences, although what goes unsaid in interviews -in Rwanda and elsewhere -is often just as important as what is vocalized (Burnet, 2012).…”

“…For researchers exploring contexts of war, genocide, and organized violence, there is the added challenge that words and narrative alone often cannot adequately capture the realities and complexity of conflict-related experiences ( Green and Denov, 2018 ). As such, researchers are increasingly turning to the arts to enable multiple forms of participant expression, as well as for the therapeutic, restorative, and empowering qualities of arts-based techniques ( Denov and Shevell, 2019 ; Leavy, 2020 ). Scholarship has begun to highlight the psychological benefits of using arts-based approaches within research, such as drawing, photography, or participatory video as they can provide a safer way to access traumatic memory, ultimately helping with traumatic recovery ( Gantt and Tinnin, 2009 ).…”

The "artistic biography" with displaced youth in camps in Iraq: Presence as an indicator of entry into resilience

“…At the same time, these nuances also imply that we must avoid any form of determinism that would associate severe forms of suffering with permanent injury and would necessarily be less resilient than others (GARRETT, 2010;DENOV;SHEVELL, 2019). On the other hand, it would not be fair to say that the achievement of collective resilience has the absolute potential to improve social situations in conflict zones.…”

“…Faced with these situations of extreme tensions, the young people's hopes living in the camps often oscillate between a bygone past that they are desperate to find and a return hoped for as the only way out (BURIEL, 2017;GÜNEY;ATIK;LUNDMARK, 2018). The multitude of violence linked to wars, their displacement, and the voids they cause, suggest a problem in individual and collective narratives (DENOV et al, 2019;GREEN;. The chaos created by successive war-related violence and situations of forced displacement leads to feelings of insecurity and painful unrest that are difficult to contain and externalize.…”

Types of Families of Joint Forces Operation Participants in the East of Ukraine and Peculiarities of Social Work With Them

“…The study of symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder in combatants and its traumatic impact on family members was carried out (Walser, Oser, Tran, & Cook, 2015). In the scientific paper "The Practice of Social Work With Children and Families Affected by War: the Importance of Family, Culture, Arts and Participation Approaches", foreign scientists (Denov & Shevell, 2018) conclude that children and families affected by war have a higher risk than the general population for various specific psychological disorders and social problems.…”