Background to the Research

• This article describes an approach employed by the NOVA service, which is a partnership project set up by Barnardos NI and local social services. The project provides support to children, families and communities traumatically affected by the NI conflict.
  

Research Approach

• NOVA's work has two strands - community trauma counselling and community capacity building. Since 1998, NOVA has worked therapeutically with approximately 222 families and 342 individuals, who have been exposed to the detrimental experiences of the 'Troubles'. This article focuses on NOVA's community trauma counselling.
  

Main Findings

• The American Psychiatric Association provided the first diagnostic definition of post-traumatic stress disorder. A traumatic event was described as 'outside the range of usual human experience.
• However, incidents such as beatings and shootings are not unusual in NI, but are common and taken for granted. They tend to result in much less strong reactions than if they had occurred elsewhere.
• Context has an impact on a person's experience and perception of trauma.
• Such traumatic events as shootings, which are part of life in NI, require an effective therapeutic response which takes cognisance of this context.
• Due to issues surrounding this area of work (such as social stigma and a 'conspiracy of silence' relating to the conflict in NI) the service delivery previously was ill-defined. NOVA aimed to design and deliver a form of support, which would encourage people to come forward.
• Three ideas useful in NOVA's work are: the coping equation, the concept of 'utilisation', and the meaning of the future. These ideas are illustrated in the article through two case examples of work with young people.
• An example of the use of the coping equation is when NOVA helped an 18-year-old male, whose coping strategy ignored his feelings and emotional needs regarding his earlier experiences of a bomb explosion. The concept of utilisation was also used to aid coping, by utilising the man's own talents and passions.
• The idea of the 'meaning of future' was useful in the case of a 14-year-old girl, who was hyper vigilant following a sectarian bomb attack on her home. The future meaning for this girl included her ambitions of going to technical college.
• In supporting individuals to achieve their potential, encouraging them to recognise and use their own resources for this, and by reinforcing their ownership of the skills employed, NOVA help individuals to create and sustain positive changes in their life, even in a society with ongoing conflict.