Chapter 6
Box 6.4 Returning to normal: the role of radio in traumatized societies

In July 1999, as hundreds of thousands of Kosovars returned home from weeks of exile in neighbouring countries, a needs-assessment was carried out to determine the information requirements of the population. Hundreds of Albanian and Serb Kosovars were asked to choose potential radio programming topics. The organizers of the survey assumed that security or land-mines awareness would lead the results. They were wrong: Kosovars wanted more information on post-conflict mental health issues.

Making sense out of situations which are seemingly senseless and helping individuals re-establish control over their lives are essential components of mental health work in post-conflict societies. Educating populations about the symptoms of trauma is a necessary step in helping individuals overcome those symptoms. Popular forms of communication, such as radio programming, could play an important role in helping facilitate this process. But the use of radio and other forms of mass communication to disseminate mental health education programming is proving controversial.

When approached with the concept of ‘trauma recovery’ radio programming, many health professionals instinctively recoil in suspicion. Trauma and mental health issues are far too complicated, they argue, and need personal attention to have any impact. One physician, representing an international organization working in Kosovo, maintained that a year-long research project designed to identify causes and symptoms of trauma in the society, followed by a second year of individualized counselling was first needed before any educational programming on a mass level could be envisaged.

But this lengthy, clinical approach is hardly likely to be the only effective approach in post-conflict situations such as Kosovo where hundreds of thousands of people may have been mentally disturbed by murder, torture and social upheaval in their homeland. The most realistic option is a mass approach, and mass media is the best vehicle for such a campaign. Why then is the international community reluctant to undertake such programming?

Trauma and mental health field projects are a popular new component in complex humanitarian emergencies and dozens of organizations operated such projects in Kosovo. But to develop a coordinated approach to psychosocial education through the media requires a consensus on the best approach to trauma counselling which is currently lacking.

There is, furthermore, a thorough lack of un-derstanding about the potential role media can play in informing local populations about their humanitarian plight. Communications in conflict situations – ‘humanitarian reporting’ – is still in its infancy and often restricted to transmitting simple facts rather than more complex messages.

Thirdly, potential donors and sponsors have difficulty conceptualizing programming which may not be quantifiable. Misunderstanding how professionally produced education programmes can impact on the well-being of listeners is the root cause of such attitudes.

Anecdotal evidence, however, indicates that local populations affected by conflict have a more pragmatic view. “The more I know about why I am feeling the way I am, the more likely I am to understand myself and my family’s reaction to what is happening to us,” said one Kosovar interviewed in Albania. There are also examples in Afghanistan and Rwanda which indicate that local audiences affected by traumatic upheavals benefit from innovative radio programming about mental health issues.

Even so, developing mass media as a vehicle for mental health work is still very much in a conceptual phase. Communication professionals and mental health experts must work more closely together to develop an appropriate methodology for crisis areas. But the few programmes that have been successfully produced so far offer hope that, in the future, the international community will respond with a more open mind to the desire and right of affected populations to find out more about trauma reactions to crisis situations. Media will have an important role to play in disseminating that information.