Citation

Thoburn JW, Bentley JA, Ahmad ZS, Jones KC. Traumatology 2012; 18(4): 79-85.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2012, Green Cross Academy of Traumatology, Publisher APA Journals)

DOI

10.1177/1534765612444880

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The ethical provision of psychological aid following international disasters is influenced by cultural factors and questions about how to effectively promote social justice. A need for holistic, systemic postdisaster mental health approaches has been identified (Wessells, 2009). This article presents a systemic epistemology superimposed on a social justice framework as a model for conceptualizing ethical service delivery in international disaster psychology. Implications of three underlying conceptual perspectives in international mental health ethics--absolutism, relativism, and universalism--are discussed. A case example is provided that illustrates how a family systems epistemology offers a flexible, integrated way to understand the universalist approach while placing social justice concerns relevant to international disaster psychology into a nested model, where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

Language: en