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Establishing meaningful activities for adults, together with oppor-
tunities for developing a new livelihood, are important provisions
that have strong healing effects. While such interventions need to
be organized, they do not require expertise in mental health assis-
tance, and are of great value to most of the affected population.
The following list illustrates a range of community-based inter-
ventions which can be implemented with very little experience in
the area of mental health, or made more sophisticated as local
capacities are enhanced:
• Dissemination of information (e.g. about legal status, missing
family members, community development plans, access to
material provisions)
• Psychoeducation about ‘normal reactions to abnormal situ-
ations’ for specific groups of beneficiaries (e.g. adolescents,
children, the elderly, parents, teachers, volunteer helpers,
veterans)
• Establishing mutual support groups with similar interests,
backgrounds or experiences (e.g. survivors of family losses,
families with missing family members)
• Informal, recreational and creative activities using local tradi-
tion, customs and culture
• Advising the community authorities on mental health issues
in the community
• Briefings for the media and dissemination of basic knowl-
edge about the normality of people’s behaviour in difficult
circumstances (e.g. using radio contact shows, writing arti-
cles for local newspapers, printing and disseminating leaflets)
• Support and consultation by mental health providers to staff
in community institutions (e.g. schools, community clinics,
churches, youth clubs) to help re-establish their normal
routines and help them provide new kinds of support
• In-service training of local care providers in order to build
sustainable capacities
• Identification and referral of highly affected individuals, fami-
lies and groups that are displaying disturbing psychological
difficulties (e.g. chronic psychiatric patients, dysfunctional
trauma victims).
3
After a disaster, community-based interventions assume a central
role focused on strengthening resilience and getting the imme-
diate medium-term and long-term care up and running. The
majority of these interventions are organized with relatively simple
resources yet still reach a long way. In countries with close
communities in particular, aid must aim to support these commu-
nities and to use their strengths. Only a very small proportion of
the victims will then need specialist forms of aid.
The challenge now is to share the experience thus obtained
between countries that possess more resources and developing
countries. A valuable point in the favour of developing countries in
this context is that they often have more closely knit social struc-
tures than more developed countries.
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Religious leaders play an important role in community-based interventions
Photo: www.anp-photo.nl / Tony Ashby
Words are better silent at times,
So we can feel what is
In the depth of our heart;
The pain, the grief, the loss,
The love
Which lets us know
That the connected love in our heart
Is forever,
Tangible
As the quiet peace.
In remembrance of Henk Janssen, Tsunami victim
Written by his wife, Jannie van der Tuin