TRC's continued successful functioning is based on the generous support of several international donors. The Center's principal donor is the Swiss Agency for Development Cooperation (SDC), and TRC has received, or is receiving, additional crucial support from the United Nations Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture (UNVFVT), the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), the Center for Victims of Torture (CVT),the Norwegian Church Aid (NCA), the European Union (EU), the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims (IRCT), the Foreign Ministry of Greece, the Welfare Association Consortium (WAC), the South African Representative's Office and a number of individual donors.

TRC's activities and programs are specifically designed to simultaneously address the pressing issues of:

a) the enormous number of victims of torture and politically-motivated violence in the Palestinian population (and the resulting effects on the mental health of the family, individual and community),

In addition, TRC's activities currently attempt to address, as promptly and effectively as possible, the immediate effects of the ongoing high level of oppression and violence being carried out in the territories, due to the Israeli crackdown on the Intifada.

Since opening its independent premises in 1999, TRC has been implementing mutually complementary programs that are designed to have a multi-tiered effect on personal and communal mental health affected by the occupation and its inherent systematic violence and stress. Programs are designed to reach, concurrently, the levels of the individual, the family, service providers and society as a whole. These programs are implemented by a multi-disciplinary team made up of medical, psychiatric, psychological and social work staff (TRC's clinical staff currently consists of a psychiatrist, a General Practitioner (Junior Psychiatrist) , seven psychologists and nine social workers). These programs/activities can be roughly broken down into the following:

• Individual treatment
• Family counseling/therapy
• Mental health and human rights training of health, social services and educational

professionals and paraprofessionals

• Outreach / Crisis Intervention Programs
• Public Awareness Program

A brief description of each is provided below:

TRC provides psychosocial services to any individual suffering from the consequences of violence and oppression of the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories. The psychological consequences of torture and politically-motivated violence can be very entrenched and long-term. Therefore, TRC continues to treat people who may have suffered their principal trauma(s) years ago, as well as those victims of the current intense violence.

TRC's policy is to take a holistic approach to treatment. It is a well-known fact throughout the international mental health community that, without psychological counseling and support, many survivors of torture and violence, and their families, are unable to effectively utilize the legal, social and medical resources available to them, and vice versa. In addition, without education as to rights and resources, torture survivors are often not aware of those resources that are available, or of what mechanisms of recourse exist. Further, it is also well-known that, through providing torture and trauma survivors with the skills and information that allow them to struggle against their own feelings of powerlessness and alienation, and through raising awareness amongst the survivor's family, the mental health recovery process is speeded up and improved. This Center aims to address all of these issues directly. Therefore, psychotherapy and counseling are always accompanied by a social assessment and social counseling and assistance, medical examination and treatment (when necessary) and referrals to other institutions for legal, occupational and other types of assistance. In addition, whenever possible, TRC also involves the client's family in treatment (either through family counseling or family therapy, depending on the needs), as psychoeducation of both the client and family are crucial to recovery.

Depending on the needs of the individual client (and/or family), treatment psychotherapeutic treatment may consist of any of the following (or combination thereof):

·        Supportive Psychotherapy

·        Counseling

·        Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy

·        Dynamic psychotherapy

·        Family Counseling / Therapy

·        Group Therapy

·        Art Therapy

·        Relaxation

·        Psychopharmocology (for acute cases, to reduce symptoms, not to the extent that symptoms are masked)

Since its founding in 1997, TRC staff has treated hundreds of individual clients and their families. In addition to sessions at the Center, clients also receive regular home visits from TRC social workers and psychologists. Depending on the needs of the client, treatment can be as brief as a few sessions, or long-term over months or years. Client progress is evaluated through regular monitoring by the therapist, supervisor and client, and treatment is adjusted accordingly. The current siege of the Palestinian territories, and its restrictions on freedom of movement, has meant that many of our current or potential clients cannot reach the Center. Whenever possible, the staff makes home visits to these clients or provides counseling via the telephone.

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TRC is the only Center of its kind in the West Bank (population over 3 million). As such, it cannot possibly hope to meet all of the pressing mental health needs on the ground. Therefore, an urgent priority is to equip other professionals and paraprofessionals, as far as is possible, to deal with the mental health issues that they are facing in their work and daily lives, in order to benefit and service as much of the general population as possible. In order to address this issue, TRC has been implementing, on a constant basis since its founding, a variety of training activities. This training program represents a concerted effort to combat the fact that there are very few mental health workers in Palestine, and that most members of the medical and social services communities generally have received little or no training in mental health issues. TRC's training activities also contain elements of human rights training as they relate to mental health and the situation in Palestine.

TRC's Training activities consist of intensive 2-4 day workshops (6-10 per year) and long-term (usually 4-months long, twice yearly) training courses. Training is provided by TRC clinical staff, as well as by outside experts invited by TRC. The goal of all training initiatives is to improve awareness, knowledge and skills related to mental health, trauma and human rights, which participants can then apply to their work. As of December 2003, over 350 professionals and paraprofessionals from the health, social services, education and human rights sectors have taken part in TRC training courses.

As part of its prevention work, TRC also designs and implements training courses for members of the Palestinian security forces. These courses are designed to provide the participants greater insight, sensitivity and skills related to their roles and relationships with the public and prisoners. Given that 60% of the current members of the security forces were themselves previously imprisoned and tortured by the Israeli authorities, this approach is particularly important in order to ensure that these individuals do not, themselves, become sources of violence now that they are in positions of power.

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TRC's Outreach activities have always been designed to allow TRC's services to reach as many people in need as possible. These activities involve sending mental health workers into the community to provide social support and counseling to individuals and families, and to raise awareness about the Center, its services and human rights. The present crisis situation, and the resulting enormous number of victims (both direct and indirect), and restrictions on freedom of movement have intensified the need for elements of support to be dispatched into the community. As a result, TRC has increased its number of clinical staff, and has organized these into fieldwork teams that carry out community work on a regular basis. These teams work as often as possible in schools, with community groups and in homes and hospitals with victims of violence and their families. In addition, a special program has been established for families who have lost beloved ones in the conflict. Outreach/Crisis Intervention activities primarily include the following:

·        Supportive counseling (through visits to homes and hospitals)

·        Crisis intervention with individuals and groups (in schools, with school children and teachers, for example)

·        Training of teachers, etc. in crisis intervention techniques

·        Group counseling and therapy with bereaved families

·        Weekly radio show broadcast from TRC and organized by bereaved family members (who speak to the public and take calls from other sufferers)

·        Publication of a manual for parents and teachers concerning stress reactions in children and how best to deal with them.

Since the beginning of the Intifada, the fieldwork teams have been very busy visiting injured in hospitals and homes, schools in the area and bereaved families. The individuals who benefit from the program are innumerable.

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An essential component of the TRC's community-based approach is its Public Awareness program. Victims of torture and violence are in dire need of a strong and effective system of social support if they are to recover and reintegrate into family and community life. However, Palestinian society is such that, traditionally, there is a strong stigma surrounding issues of mental health problems, and a basic miscomprehension of mental illness. For this reason, it is vital that the community at large be sensitized to the realities faced by victims of torture and violence, and by those suffering from mental health problems in general, in order to offer the utmost understanding and support possible. Therefore, TRC uses Public Meetings and the media to reach as many people as possible throughout Palestine, concerning issues of mental health, welfare of ex-detainees and other victims of trauma, and social concerns placing stress on mental health.

TRC holds an average of 100 Public Meetings per year. These are generally organized with local community groups and generally involve the participation of 30 - 70 members of the general public. The subjects covered by the meetings include children's mental health, stress reactions and coping, and various other related types of psycho education.

In addition to decades of Israeli occupation, the Palestinian territories have been experiencing pointed aggression, continuous stress and high levels of mass and individual trauma since the outbreak of the second Palestinian uprising in 2000.  Palestinian children living under the horrible conditions of the Israeli occupation are often the hardest hit.  These children are left to cope with and try to understand aggressive bombardments, invasions, brutal ‘sweeps’ [campaigns of mass arrest], house demolitions, closures and restrictions.  Often, Palestinian children living in remote villages or refugee camps are unable to simply play outdoors or reach their schools; they are suffocated with illogical restrictions and fear. 

The annual Summer Camp Activity is necessary because children, unlike adults, depend less on verbal communication in expressing their distress, frustration, confusion and anger.  Their human rights are systematically violated and they are left to manage their loss of innocence.  The legacy that Palestinian children are burdened with creates a strong necessity for psychological intervention.  This necessity led to the creation of a summer camp for these children.  For three consecutive years, TRC has held successful summer camps.  The affected children who have participated in past summer camps were the children of TRC’s clients.  The main goals of the summer camp activity are to:

·      Help children acquire new skills such as relaxation techniques, stress inoculation, problem solving and self-control.

·      Teach children some of the methods of positive-self understanding, personal security measures, preventive strategies, and teaching them how to become assertive without harming themselves or the people around them.

·      Train children how to deal with the current crisis and how to ventilate and bring out their fears, personal trauma experiences, worries and ambitions.

·      Provide children with techniques on how to become self-assertive, practice self-efficacy, become positive, hopeful and optimistic.

·      Children are encouraged to participate in formulating their daily programs and are given the responsibility of balancing between their wants and those of the camp leaders.