About the Episode:
In this episode of Global Stage, Keough School faculty member and psychologist Laura Miller-Graff describes her research on the impacts of violence on mental health and human development. Interviewed by doctoral candidate in peace studies and psychology Catherine Maloney, Miller-Graff offers an intersectional analysis of mental health outcomes for women, health care workers, and populations suffering from housing instability. The discussants expound upon the constraints on systems of care especially in developing countries, and the prospects of task-sharing for mental health provision.
 
Show Notes:

Welcome to Global Stage, a podcast highlighting academic and policy-oriented international research on democracy and human development. Global Stage is brought to you by the Kellogg Institute for International Studies, part of the Keough School of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame. Today, host Catherine Maloney is joined by Laura Miller-Graff, a professor of psychology and peace studies at the University of Notre Dame. A Kellogg Institute faculty fellow, she focuses her research on developing psychological interventions for families and children affected by violence.

Miller-Graf discusses the misconception that children are unaffected by violence at a young age, emphasizing that early exposure can have profound psychological and physiological effects. She stresses the importance of supporting families through violence prevention and intervention because of its pervasive and damaging impacts. Additionally, she acknowledges the intersectionality of violence with socioeconomic factors, underscoring how resource accessibility influences outcomes for affected individuals. Miller-Graf explains that directly translating interventions across cultural and contextual settings doesn't always work. When adapting a maternal health program for a new setting, it is essential to consider local resources, norms, and practices to meet the specific needs of the women involved.

 A comprehensive research approach in Lima, Peru, showed that simply translating an existing program would have been inadequate and even irrelevant to the needs of these women. By omitting irrelevant content and adapting it to fit local realities, such as focusing more on postpartum recovery, they ensured that the program genuinely supported the women it was designed to help. A major challenge in delivering mental health services globally is the shortage of trained professionals, which is a widespread issue that affects all countries. One solution to this problem is task shifting, where community members or paraprofessionals are trained to deliver specific, evidence-based interventions under supervision from licensed psychologists. However, this model requires targeted training, focused on delivering specific therapies and evidence-based programs adapted for the local context.

In closing, Miller-Graf discusses her edited volume Psychological Perspectives in Understanding and Addressing Violence Against Children, which highlights how research can inform policy and practice in reducing violence against children globally. 

 
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