Orphans in post-conflict Liberia: Seeking care in fractured communities

Orphans in post-conflict settings have unique needs that have not been well-characterized. In post-conflict Liberia, maternal orphans are more likely to be without care than paternal orphans. This study examined the experiences of maternal orphans in Liberia, as they attempted to care for themselves and seek care from others, and the barriers they faced. In-depth interviews were conducted with 75 post-conflict Liberian orphans. We performed a secondary narrative analysis of interview transcripts from all maternal or double orphans (n = 17). We identified similar elements across narratives: traumatic loss, disconnection from family and community, and the desire for a savior. Female high-risk orphans were more likely to have formal substitute caregiving arrangements in which they were living with someone who was a relative or had been selected by a relative. Male orphans more commonly lacked arranged substitute care, but this allowed them to form relationships with substitute caregivers of their choosing. Sex also played a role in the provision of caregiving; substitute care was provided by women. Findings highlighted the syndemic relationship between poverty, violence, transactional sex, trauma, and substance use that traps high-risk Liberian orphans. Interventions are needed to improve access to mental health care, sober communities, housing, and education support. The need to integrate these services into indigenous institutions and address barriers related to stigma is explored.

Beyond the Wards: Exploring the personal accounts of three New Zealand nurses during the Great War in Egypt

<p>Drawing upon the primary accounts of three Great War nurses – Mildred Salt, Louisa Higginson and Daphne Rowena Commons – who all served in the Mediterranean and Middle East, this thesis explores the theme of identity – gender identity, colonial identity and ‘tourist identity’. I argue that the nurses’ writing challenges the popular perception of nursing as a traumatic loss of innocence, which has been largely drawn from published works of volunteer nurses rather than professionals. The three nurses in this thesis spent very little time, if any, documenting what they witnessed in the wards. Their entries dispute the romantic notions presented in popular literature or propaganda posters used throughout the empire, which presented the nurses as young, innocent and beautiful and standing at the bedside of a wounded soldier. The first chapter examines the nurses’ identity as tourists. Overseas travel was a new experience for these nurses, and their experiences of the ‘Home’ culture of London and the exoticism of Egypt feature frequently in their diary entries and letters. Their responses were diverse, but common themes emerge. Many of the tensions the nurses experienced stemmed from their unusual position in the empire as women voters with a pioneering heritage. The second chapter will examine the two perceptions of ‘colonial’ – the positive and negative perception. The former was used by the British as a means of putting New Zealand nurses in their place. The latter formed when the nurses were treating New Zealand patients in hospital, acting as a physical and mental connection to home. The third chapter asks how the greater autonomy women possessed, due to their colonial lifestyle, influenced the nurses’ campaign for their right to serve overseas. The fourth, and final, chapter will explore how the nurses negotiated the traditional notions of womanhood whilst in the masculine environment of war. Not only did they face opposition from some military officials who believed war was no place for women, they observed and critiqued the behaviour of other women. Through exploring the diaries and letters of three New Zealand nurses, this thesis provides a more complex view of the experiences of almost 600 New Zealand professional nurses who were stationed overseas during the war.</p>

Beyond the Wards: Exploring the personal accounts of three New Zealand nurses during the Great War in Egypt

<p>Drawing upon the primary accounts of three Great War nurses – Mildred Salt, Louisa Higginson and Daphne Rowena Commons – who all served in the Mediterranean and Middle East, this thesis explores the theme of identity – gender identity, colonial identity and ‘tourist identity’. I argue that the nurses’ writing challenges the popular perception of nursing as a traumatic loss of innocence, which has been largely drawn from published works of volunteer nurses rather than professionals. The three nurses in this thesis spent very little time, if any, documenting what they witnessed in the wards. Their entries dispute the romantic notions presented in popular literature or propaganda posters used throughout the empire, which presented the nurses as young, innocent and beautiful and standing at the bedside of a wounded soldier. The first chapter examines the nurses’ identity as tourists. Overseas travel was a new experience for these nurses, and their experiences of the ‘Home’ culture of London and the exoticism of Egypt feature frequently in their diary entries and letters. Their responses were diverse, but common themes emerge. Many of the tensions the nurses experienced stemmed from their unusual position in the empire as women voters with a pioneering heritage. The second chapter will examine the two perceptions of ‘colonial’ – the positive and negative perception. The former was used by the British as a means of putting New Zealand nurses in their place. The latter formed when the nurses were treating New Zealand patients in hospital, acting as a physical and mental connection to home. The third chapter asks how the greater autonomy women possessed, due to their colonial lifestyle, influenced the nurses’ campaign for their right to serve overseas. The fourth, and final, chapter will explore how the nurses negotiated the traditional notions of womanhood whilst in the masculine environment of war. Not only did they face opposition from some military officials who believed war was no place for women, they observed and critiqued the behaviour of other women. Through exploring the diaries and letters of three New Zealand nurses, this thesis provides a more complex view of the experiences of almost 600 New Zealand professional nurses who were stationed overseas during the war.</p>

Messages to first responders from a bereaved parent

INTRODUCTION: This article describes the use of autoethnography to explore my experience as a bereaved parent in relation to the traumatic loss of my 12-year-old child in 2009.METHODS: Employing an autoethnographic approach, this research articulates and investigates personal narratives associated with experiences of the death of my young child. Narratives offer a rich description of the event and allow data analysis where emerging themes stream from a personal experience.FINDINGS: Professionals taking control and the caring role of the community are main themes identified and analysed from these personal narratives. The findings advocate for an understanding of the needs of grieving parents at a time of extreme confusion. This article concentrates on professional first responders taking control and guiding traumatised parents when their child has a fatal event. Bereaved parents experience disorientation and traumatic confusion at the sudden death of their child. Emergency responders need to offer active listening skills and guidance.IMPLICATIONS: Professional first responders need to take control of the bereaved parent’s early journey of grief as they are likely to be in a state of deep traumatic shock, where disorientation leaves them vulnerable to lowered cognitive ability. The use of active listening skills and sensitivity can direct traumatised parents, thereby assisting the short- and long-term welfare of the family by addressing their initial needs at a time of crisis.

“It Feels Like a Life’s Work”

By considering a set of in-depth interviews with eight bereaved mothers, this article seeks to explore ideas about what records are and what they do. Working to centre the voices and experiences of the bereaved mothers, the article first discusses some of the objects, events, places, and bodily traces they identified that function as records. It next considers the roles records and recordkeeping played for the parents interviewed, identifying four types of records work: proving life and love, parenting, continuing a relationship, and imagining. Records and recordkeeping are shown to be instrumental in the ongoing processing of traumatic loss as well as in the significant work of ensuring a life has meaning and is acknowledged. Finally, the interviews with parents also showed how deeply imbricated are love and grief as emotions and as motivations for recordkeeping, and the article ends by articulating a call for archivists to learn to “look with love.”