Back to Bosnia
Trauma team finds progress as Eastern Europe repairs the ravages of war.
By WAYNE ANDERSON
Story ran on September 26, 1999

The expedition to Bosnia by plane and car took 36 hours. No longer there, however, was the 22-hour drive over shell-pocked roads with armed Serbian guards at checkpoints.

This was an encore visit for our team from the International Center for Psychosocial Trauma at the University of Missouri-Columbia led by Arshad Husain, a child psychiatrist at the MU School of Medicine. This was Husain’s 20th trip and my fourth. The team included Barbara Bauer, Joseph Lamberti and Barry Jay. We ran workshops on the treatment of trauma for 100 teachers and mental-health workers from the Balkans. In addition, our team attended an international conference on mental health.

The warm reception from participants created the atmosphere of a family reunion. It was exhilarating to be back in Bosnia to see many old friends and to have the opportunity to make new ones. The University of Tuzla, which was one of the trip’s sponsors, has become truly a sister institution to MU.

Physical conditions for guests in Bosnia are much improved. The hotels in both Tuzla and Sarajevo are in good repair and have hot and cold running water. There was only one power outage while we were there, a marked change from earlier visits. War-torn Bosnia and Croatia have little money for rebuilding, but visitors can see both positive and negative signs as to how well things are going.

Unseen rewards

Husain believes that training teachers and others to work with groups of victims can compensate for the lack of mental-health workers in areas of armed conflict. It was rewarding to find that our efforts have been successful. The proof was in the scientific papers read at the International Congress of the World Islamic Association for Mental Health. Supervised by faculty from the University of Tuzla, mental-health workers and teachers in Bosnia have been studying in the classroom and in the clinic what happens when the therapeutic methods we have been teaching are used with traumatized children and adults.

Study after study — 15 in all — showed that what we have been teaching about stress-management, play and art therapy, anger control and basic therapy techniques has made a significant difference in the mental health of victims of war. The MU team was especially pleased with the studies showing that children and adolescents who were trained in relaxation techniques and other psychosocial treatments had significantly fewer post-traumatic stress symptoms.

Frequent smiles

Both Croatia and Bosnia are culturally European countries, and the ambiance in the big cities is relaxed and congenial. The centers of Zagreb, Tuzla and Sarajevo have been restored as gathering places where young couples walk hand-in-hand, older couples stroll, bands of teenagers gather, and everyone stops at the many sidewalk cafes for herbal tea, potent coffee or local beer. Small combos play both pop and traditional music, and everyone seems to have a smile for strangers. The women appeared very thin to me but looked otherwise healthy and attractive and dressed stylishly.

The relaxed approach to life helped me enjoy the foreign atmosphere. The streets seemed so much livelier and friendly than those in American cities, and it felt — and was — much safer. One evening the mayor of Tuzla and the dean of the medical school were both out and blending into the warm ambiance of the street scene.