Humanitarian Crisis in Haiti
Boston Center for Refugee Health & Human Rights (BCRHHR) has extensive experience in dealing with the psychological sequelae of massive trauma on diverse cultural populations. It is our opinion that it is unwise for so-called “stress debriefing” units to be deployed to Haiti. These units tend to focus on what they believe survivors should feel rather than allowing the natural process of each individual’s unique expression of distress. During the initial phases, survivors need physical safety and listening to rather than aggressive mental health intervention.
Even in the weeks and months following a disaster, most reactions are normal responses to the trauma experienced. A small percentage of survivors will have persistent symptoms months after traumatic exposure, and these will need professional intervention.
It is also the experience of BCRHHR that following disasters, refugee populations here in the United States can experience flashbacks and re-experience phenomenon from their own traumatic history. Haitian refugees living in the United States can be re-traumatized by the visual images coming from Haiti.
We should also be concerned about the vicarious traumatization of volunteers who deliver care during the acute phase of the earthquake in Haiti. These providers require monitoring and can experience some of the same traumatic symptoms as the victims of the earthquake. Careful post-deployment follow up and debriefing are critical.
Michael A. Grodin, MD
Haiti Article
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Global Lawyers and Physicians was founded in 1996 at an international symposium on health at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Nuremberg Doctors Trial. As one of the earliest and most important health and human rights documents, the Nuremberg Code was developed by lawyers and physicians working together. GLP was formed to reinvigorate the collaboration of the legal and medical/public health professions to protect the human rights and dignity of all persons. Lawyers and physicians, by virtue of their privileged position and their commitment to life, health, social justice and equality, have special obligations to all people. GLP was founded on the premise that these professions, working together transnationally, can be a much more effective force for human rights than either profession can working separately.