Collective Post-traumatic Disorders, Residual Resources, and an Extensive Context of Trust: Creating a Network in a Refugee Camp in Former Yugoslavia

Between 1993 and 1996, at the request of Médecins Sans Frontières, Belgium, a "pilot project for network therapy centered on families" was designed for, and developed in, two refugee and displaced persons camps during the war ravaging former Yugoslavia. These two facilities housed approximately a thousand families, most of whom had lost one or more members and were suffering from very serious trauma. We decided to accompany our intervention with a dual process of evaluation. During the preliminary stage of this evaluation, the coordinator met with some of the families to ask for their help in supplying information concerning their needs and developing the most appropriate intervention.