Conflict, Peace and Mental Health - by David Bolton

About the Book

What are the human consequences of conflict and what are the appropriate service responses? This book provides answers to these important questions, drawing on over twenty-five years of work by the author in Northern Ireland and elsewhere.

Book Synopsis

A powerful guide for dealing with traumatised communities in the wake of conflict and disaster.

What are the human consequences of conflict, and how should healthcare and social services respond? In this book, David Bolton provides an answer to these urgent questions, drawing on more than twenty-five years of service experience in Northern Ireland and elsewhere.

Focusing on the work he undertook with colleagues following the devastating Omagh bombing in 1998, Bolton reveals how needs were assessed and how evidence-based services were put in place. He describes the training and education programmes that were developed to assist first those communities directly affected by the bombing and later the wider population traumatised by the years of conflict. Crucially, he places the mental-health needs of affected communities at the heart of the political and peace processes that follow.

The second edition of this clear and practical book includes new chapters on the challenges of promoting justice and reconciliation in a post-conflict situation. It is essential reading for those planning for and responding to conflict-related disasters, policy makers, service commissioners and providers, politicians, civil servants and peace makers.

From the Back Cover

What are the human consequences of conflict, and how should healthcare and social services respond? In this book, David Bolton provides an answer to these urgent questions, drawing on more than twenty-five years of service experience in Northern Ireland and elsewhere.

Focusing on the work he undertook with colleagues following the devastating Omagh bombing in 1998, Bolton reveals how needs were assessed and how evidence-based services were put in place. He describes the training and education programmes that were developed to assist first those communities directly affected by the bombing and later the wider population traumatised by the years of conflict. Crucially, he places the mental-health needs of affected communities at the heart of the political and peace processes that follow.

The second edition of this clear and practical book includes a new chapter on the challenges of promoting justice and reconciliation in a post-conflict situation. It is essential reading for those planning for and responding to conflict-related disasters, policy makers, service commissioners and providers, politicians, civil servants and peace makers.

Review Quotes

The author writes from the heart, with the experience of a highly respected practitioner and researcher, and with a very personal yet professional relationship with victims and survivors.
Rev. Harold Good, Former President of the Methodist Church in Ireland and witness to the decommissioning of the IRA and ETA weaponry.

This is a magnificent contribution not just to the British/Irish troubles but to every region and every country where the agony and horror of violence has penetrated and mangled the human spirit.
Denis Bradley, Co-Chair Consultative Group on the Past

This is a book full of civility, humanism and evidence in relation to the psychological consequences of societal violence.
Brendan Bunting, Professor of Psychology, Ulster University

David Bolton writes with insight in this admirable book. I have rarely encountered an individual so committed and dedicated to making the ragged edges of peace less painful.
David McKittrick, co-author of Lost Lives, the compilation of Troubles related deaths in Northern Ireland.

David Bolton brings over 30 years of field experience in Northern Ireland to this book through which he shares his insights of conflict-related trauma and recovery, supported with empirical research evidence, with all humanitarians working in conflicted societies.
Fergus Cooper OBE, Former Save the Children Head of Country, in Northern Ireland

'If there is one book that should be required reading for our MLAs, it is [this]. The book is a timely reminder that while the Assembly remains suspended and political progress remains stalled, victims and survivors of violence continue to live with the consequences of the past...The book is also designed to appeal to an international audience. There is much to be learned and applied from the examples of good practice developed in the aftermath of Omagh and in the research/evidence-based approach of the partnership between NICTT and Ulster University...I am heartened that people in other parts of the world may learn from those who have suffered in Northern Ireland. But I hope that the learning in Northern Ireland itself has not stopped, and that our politicians and policy makers heed Bolton's message about what remains to be done.'
Gladys Ganiel, Slugger O'toole

'What prompted Bolton to write the book was the conflict in Syria and, before that, in Iraq. He hopes it will be of use to counsellors and psychiatrists and psychotherapists and anyone trying to deal with the traumatic impact of conflict.'
Gerry Moriarty, Irish Times

'This is a timely book to remind us what happens when we don't nourish peace or build public infrastructures to ensure that violence and injustice cannot succeed. It is timely not only because of recent events in Northern Ireland that might evoke divisions from the past, but also because of recent events in London and Manchester, hate crime, and the shortcomings of democratic voting- not to mention also the importance of looking now at the intergenerational problems that await the people in Syria and other Middle East Countries.'
Derek Indoe, British Journal of Psychology

About the Author

David Bolton is a trauma researcher, writer and practitioner. He trained as a social worker in Belfast from 1974 to 1978, during some of the worst years of the civil conflict. At the time of the Omagh bombing of 1998 he coordinated the immediate and longer-term responses of community services, including establishing the Omagh Community Trauma and Recovery Team. In 2002 he became the founding director of the Northern Ireland Centre for Trauma and Transformation, which closed in 2011. He lives in County Fermanagh in Northern Ireland.