Global issues in intervention development in contexts of political violence

July 15-23, 2016

Violence in Palestine has been on-going and severe for many years, and there is a wealth of basic research on the negative effects of such violence on developing children and their family systems. Yet, there have been extraordinarily few interventions that have been rigorously evaluated and even fewer that have been able to demonstrate any positive effects on mental health. We propose that two theoretical frameworks – social ecological theory and emotional security theory – may be successfully leveraged for better identifying possible avenues for successful mental health programs in setting with chronic violence (Cummings & Miller-Graff, 2015). The conference will seek to: discuss the application of these theoretical models as they apply to mental health program development in Palestine, consider conceptualizations of resilience and well-being in the face of chronic trauma, and identify relevant intersections between systems that may require unique approaches to treatment.

This conference is supported by University of Notre Dame Institute for Scholarship for the Liberal Arts