Chapter 5: Medical Services

Healing the Hurt: A Guide for Developing Services for Torture Survivors was developed by The National Capacity Building Project at The Center for Victims of Torture for practitioners who may or may not have worked previously with torture survivors. It is a multidisciplinary guide that addresses some basic considerations when working with this population. This handbook is a primer, and it should not take the place of more in-depth training in torture treatment. We hope you find this resource helpful in your work with torture survivors. Various chapters are referred to under Providers Resources at HealTorture.org. Access to all handbook chapters is available by downloading the PDF files.

You can view and download the full book here or scroll down to view and download Chapter Five.

Chapter Five

This chapter is a resource for physicians and nurses working with or planning services for torture survivors. Preceding chapters outline the purpose of torture and common torture methods. This chapter reviews the long-term effects of torture and describes roles and responsibilities for physicians, psychiatrists, and nurses who are helping torture survivors reduce trauma symptoms and rebuild their lives in the United States. These roles and responsibilities include education, documentation, assessment, treatment, referral, research, and advocacy. While detailed discussion of specific treatment modalities are beyond the scope of this chapter, it will introduce areas deserving further exploration by health care providers. These topics include cultural competence, working with interpreters, use of medications, and improving access to care. In addition to direct treatment approaches, physicians and psychiatrists are encouraged to integrate preventive components into their organization’s programmatic strategies. Examples of such strategies are discussed in Chapter 8. Finally, this chapter describes resources and training opportunities for physicians and nurses interested in conducting medical and psychological forensic evaluations on survivors of torture.