Evaluation of Selected Therapeutic Interventions Implemented in Mental Health Clinic of the Palestinian Ministry of Health for Gaza Children after Crisis

Abstract

This study of the knowledge of the researcher, is considered as important because it evaluates selected psychotherapeutic interventions that done for a group of children afterGazawar, and complaints of PTSD. The aim of this study is to know the useful psychotherapeutic interventions that can be selected for such a group of children. The general objective for this study is the Evaluation of selected therapeutic interventions implemented in the mental health clinic of the Palestine Ministry of Health for children in Gaza Strip after Crisis. The problem of the study has identified the following research questions; What are the types of psychological interventions that were used with children by Mental Health Clinic in Ministry of Health? How they were used? To what extent the psychological interventions that were provided for children in Mental Health Clinic of Ministry of Health were effective? To what extent parents were satisfied with psychological interventions that provided for their children after crisis? What are the recommendations and suggestion for improving psychological interventions implemented in Mental Health Clinic in Ministry of Health? The sample was estimated 30 cases of PTSD from children, A sample of around 15 children who received pharmacological interventions with their parents, and other 15 children who received psychological interventions with one of their parents were registered in governmental mental health clinic during the year 2009 selected from population and all sample collected without any droped out. The researcher used 6 types of tools; the first one is Socio demographical survey, which has 10 questions about social and economical status for the child. The second one is PTSD Questionnaire which has a scale for 17 questions to check the degree of PTSD for child. The third one is SDQ, which has 25 questions designed for parents to talk about the personality manner for their child. The Fourth one is a survey to evaluate the service in governmental mental health hospital and has more than 50 questions. The fifth one is a focus group that done for selected community mental health workers. And the last one is collecting data from patient’s records. Descriptive statistics in addition to inferential non parametric statistics including Mann-Whitney test. Results showed that; Cognitive behavioral therapy not used in professional and theoretical manner in mental health clinic ministry of health. Children who are using play therapy or medication are improved equally after treatment. Play therapy group improved better then medication group from family perspective. Play therapy group were satisfied more than medication group with regard to hospital services. Recommendations for this study are; Policy Makers and managers in mental health clinic-Ministry of health should be informed with the results of this study to take necessary steps to improve psychotherapeutic interventions for children (especially cognitive behavioral therapy). Mental health workers should be encouraged to increase their knowledge and skills regularly through continuous education. Evaluate all types of psychotherapy that used by mental health clinic- Ministry of health.