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Addressing the Needs of Children and Youth in the Context of War and Terrorism: the Technological Frontier

  • Child and Family Disaster Psychiatry (B Pfefferbaum, Section Editor)
  • Published:
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Abstract

This paper reviews recent literature on the mental health needs of youth in the context of war and terrorism. A human rights lens is used to explore issues of accessibility and sustainability in service utilization during times of crisis. The authors present the evolution of services over the last several decades, progressing through individual, school-based, and community-wide interventions by exploring models that focus on symptom reduction and building resilience. This paper highlights the benefits and limitations of traditional intervention methods and proposes a new frontier of intervention development and research. The authors focus on the emerging field of e-mental health services and specifically highlight the utility of virtual reality games in treating trauma-exposed youth. The rapid and easily accessible nature of e-mental health models is presented as one potential solution to barriers in accessibility that can help promote the human rights of youth exposed to war and terrorism.

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Acknowledgments

Esther Schek for sharing her knowledge of technological interventions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Paul Baerwald School of Social Work and Social Welfare, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel

    Leia Y. Saltzman, Levi Solomyak & Ruth Pat-Horenczyk

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  1. Leia Y. Saltzman
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Correspondence to Leia Y. Saltzman.

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Levi Solomyak and Ruth Pat-Horenczyk declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Leia Y. Saltzman has received a grant from The Azrieli Foundation.

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This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Child and Family Disaster Psychiatry

Leia Y. Saltzman is grateful to the Azrieli Foundation for the award of an Azrieli Fellowship

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Saltzman, L.Y., Solomyak, L. & Pat-Horenczyk, R. Addressing the Needs of Children and Youth in the Context of War and Terrorism: the Technological Frontier. Curr Psychiatry Rep 19, 30 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11920-017-0786-6

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