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Healing Voices

Module 1 Review

Key points to remember

1. Torture is a particular type of trauma. It involves any act by which severe pain or suffering,
whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as
obtaining information or a confession, punishment or coercion, or for any reason based
on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted intentionally with the
involvement or acquiescence of someone acting in an official capacity.

2. Torture deeply harms the individuals, their families and the entire community. When
governments or other forces within a community engage in torture, it is also meant to
spread fear and silence people.
3. “War trauma” involves trauma experienced by civilians caught up in a war when combatants
commit atrocities against the civilian population. Women and children are particularly
vulnerable. Complex humanitarian emergencies are also characterized by massive human
rights abuses on a colossal scale, often involving mass killings.
4. The impact of such trauma is lasting, severe and deep. Mental health services are often
a critical part of recovery, and without language assistance from interpreters it may be
difficult or impossible to achieve recovery.
5. Survivors of torture and other major trauma may manifest a wide variety of symptoms
during mental health, health and legal appointments. These symptoms may appear unusual
to interpreters and may create special challenges for the interpreted session.

6. The impact of witnessing such symptoms as they manifest themselves may mean that
interpreters will need to restrict most of their responses to interpreting. They will also need
to learn and practice specific, helpful strategies to manage their emotional and behavioral
responses.

7. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a common diagnosis among those who have
experienced an extreme stressor such as torture, war traumas and sexual violence. The
hallmark of PTSD is the development of a constellation of symptoms related to re-
experiencing the trauma in some way, avoidance and hypervigilance.
8. An estimated 6.8–12.3 percent of adults in the U.S. suffer from PTSD at some point in
their lifetime while 3.5–6 percent have been estimated to have PTSD in the past one
year (Resnick et al., 1993; Norris, 1992; Kessler et al., 2005a). The estimated past-year
prevalence of PTSD among refugees and torture survivors is higher, ranging from 30.6
percent to 62 percent (Steel et al., 2009; Marshall et al., 2005). Similar results were found
in studies conducted in Canada.
9. While severe trauma has the potential to induce severe distress and dysfunction in survivors,
there is also the possibility of adaptation, effective functioning and post-traumatic growth
following severe trauma.
10. Research to date suggests that resilience is the most common outcome of potentially
traumatic events.

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