Since my last entry in February 2010, much has happened.
I had the privilege to be invited by Steven Pitman, co-ordinator of the rural GP network in Wodonga, Australia, to conduct a workshop with a very inspiring group of health care professionals who mainly work in rural palliative care.
Their enthousiasm, imput and creativity into the work has been amazing. For some feedback of this workshop, please see under the heading TRAININGS- TRAINING BENEFITS".
The work in Samoa is continuing, I have been back for visits conducting ongoing training for WIBDI (see heading training) in April, June and more visits are planned for the end of September, the one year anniversary of the devastating tsunami as well as towards the end of the year. In April Dr. Sue Marsden and i worked together with the team.
The Samoan people have responded with much courage after this disaster and we have seen a lot of rebuilding and growth. However, what is also slowly emerging is the post traumatic stress in people affected by the tsunami. Now that many houses have been rebuilt and people have some sense of restored livelyhood, the psycho-social/spiritual trauma is emerging. In my opinion, it will be still quite a while before that trauma impact is healed and will need on-going attention.