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The Needs of Victims of the Troubles in Northern Ireland

The Social Work Contribution

University of Ulster at Magee, Northern Ireland, r.manktelow{at}ulster.ac.uk

• Summary: The civil and political conflict in Northern Ireland over a 30-year period, known as the Troubles, has resulted in over 3600 deaths and some 40,000 injured. The present study investigates the needs of people affected by the Troubles and what contribution social work is making to help meet those needs. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with key representatives of 45 groups providing services to victims of the Troubles. Proposals are made for the development of specialist social work services for individuals suffering conflict-related trauma.

• Findings: The results show that the psychological experience of the Troubles is characterized by the theme of a vulnerability to depression and anxiety arising from the internalization of negative feelings and the theme of loss — a sudden and violent bereavement and a grieving which has had to be denied and postponed. Victims suffered ill-health caused by long-term, attritional stress and the employment of coping mechanisms which in themselves placed individual health at risk. The Troubles caused adverse social effects including an individual experience of anomie, a community fragmentation and disintegration and a social culture of suspicion and segregation.

• Applications : The prime recommendation of the study is that social work services provided for victims of the Troubles must be community based, offer safety and trust, recognize the right to campaign on human rights issues and offer a range of therapeutic responses.

Key Words: conflict • Northern Ireland • social work • trauma victims

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