Psychosocial Needs Assessment of Communities Affected by the Conflicts in the Districts of Pidie, Biereuen, and Aceh Utara

Abstract

Between December 2005 and February 2006, a team of researchers from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the Department of Social Medicine from Harvard Medical School, carried out a Psychosocial Needs Assessment (PNA) in three high conflict districts on the northeast coast of the province of Aceh (N.A.D.), with financial support from the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade and an IOM contract with Harvard Medical School. The basic goal of the assessment was to evaluate the psychosocial and mental health needs in communities which have been deeply affected by the years of conflict between armed forces of the Republic of Indonesia and the Free Aceh Movement(G.A.M.),given the cessation of violence following the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding of August 15, 2005. This report focuses on current psychosocial and mental health needs in high conflict areas of Pidie, Bireuen, and Aceh Utara and deliberately refrains from identifying groups or individuals instrumental in the violence visited upon these communities.