Highlights
Gulu Health Project
The Danish Center of Psychotraumatology participated in the GULU Health Project by researching how to prevent suicide in Uganda and by teaching psychotraumatology to students at Gulu University.
The Danish Center for Psychotraumatology has been involved in this DANIDA project in three areas:
We have trained students at GULU University and healthcare professionals in the GULU district in psychotraumatology
Supervision
We have supervised a large suicide prevention project in Gulu district
Validation of WHO criteria
We investigated whether the new WHO ICD-11 criteria for PTSD and complex PTSD are applicable in an African context.
The practice of primary healthcare often requires a stable population. But in conflict and post-conflict conditions, mobility poses an even more pronounced problem for primary healthcare.
In northern Uganda, the population has been subjected to forced urbanisation in camps for internally displaced people. When peace recently returned to the region, resettlement from the camps to rural areas with poor services resulted. The population faces issues related to establishing a home, security, planning for the future and changing living conditions.
There are problems reaching some segments of the population and at the same time, services for internally displaced people during conflicts provided by WFP and relief organisations have been stopped.
Since 2008, a Demographic System Health Check (DSS) has been developed under Gulu University in Awach County, Gulu.
This is part of the Gulu-ENRECA research capacity building project.
Preliminary findings suggest significant issues relating to nutrition, security, gender, generational and land disputes, high levels of human insecurity and post-traumatic stress.
The combination of different exposures to war trauma, camp life, WFP food and now reversed migration from urban to rural areas offers a unique epidemiological situation to evaluate the short- and long-term effects of more or less controlled displacement. The results will provide evidence for more efficient service delivery, and provide new insights on mobility, safety and health.
You can read more about the projects on the Gulu project website.
Publications:
Ovuga, E., Oboke, H., Abio, A., Ocaka, F. K, Sodemann, M. & Elklit, A. (2022) Lay Counselors’ Mental Wellness in Suicide Prevention after Prolonged Mass Trauma: A Pre- and Post-Training Appraisal. In: Ovuga, E. (red.). Stress Related Disorder. Intech Open. DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.106620.