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Healing Arts

General Guidelines (download Word document)
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Natural disasters and wars devastate communities and tear apart families, traumatizing those involved, especially the young. Three major natural disasters occurred in just ten months between December 2004 and October 2005: the Asian tsunami, Hurricane Katrina, and the Pakistan earthquake.

Scientific studies on the psychological effect of the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center found that directly affected children were at risk for a variety of mental health problems including anxiety disorders, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and childhood traumatic grief (CTG), a condition affecting those who experience a death under traumatic circumstances. Preventing and treating the distress experienced by children in a timely manner is crucial for optimal long-term health and recovery. Parents, caregivers and teachers of these children were found to minimize, ignore, deny and criticize, or be sensitive to the plight of the children, depending upon their own recovery and progress.

The circumstances and implications of each disaster are different, but the knowledge gained from one tragedy can help in diagnosis and treatment of the survivors of another. ICAF�s Healing Arts programs are effective tools in community building and reconstruction, be it of a town by the sea or a hamlet in the mountains.

The following steps comprise ICAF�s Healing Arts program:

  • Develop training materials: A training manual is prepared which describes best practices and provides practical suggestions on what children should be encouraged to paint or draw, and helpful coping strategies to avoid traumatizing children by other children�s stories or art;
  • Identify, train, and coordinate volunteers: Enlist and mobilize expert and other volunteers to work on different components of the program; coordinate art therapy workshops in schools, orphanages, and shelters;
  • Identify, collect and ship art and school supplies: Determine what teachers in the affected areas need and ship art and school supplies to them;
  • Promote empathy through encouragement art: Encourage children not affected by the disaster to create �encouragement art� that provides hope to other children affected by the disaster. Such art creation, international exchange, and exhibitions help promote empathy and awareness;
  • Psychological intervention for the traumatized: Identify the most severe cases for psychological treatment, in consultation with local teachers and parents; and
  • Evaluation of response: Evaluate the program and determine the need for program extension and modification.