Consultations
Our program is currently involved in several consultations on trauma psychology with a range of advocates working around the globe with survivors of grave human rights violations.
Supporting Trauma-informed Approaches at Human Rights Watch
The Human Rights in Trauma Mental Health Program (HRTMHP) at Stanford University is working in partnership with Human Rights Watch on a series of activities, including offering general consultation to the HRW research team on engaging with survivors of trauma, offering interactive and contextualized training materials for both new and seasoned HRW researchers on best practices for working with survivors of trauma, and curating and offering guidance on the self- and community care of researchers exposed to traumatic scenarios.
Guatemala Mental Health Law Project
Our team has collaborated with members of the Guatemalan Congress to draft and refine the first comprehensive mental health law, integrating feedback from medical and legal professionals affiliated with Stanford’s Human Rights in Trauma Mental Health program. The proposed changes to the law balance human rights with clinical safety by defining safeguards for the use of evidence-based crisis interventions, clarifying informed consent capacity, and preserving crisis hospital care to ensure safe, effective treatment.
This project is advancing on two specific areas of focus, legislative reform through Congress and regulatory and implementation planning with the Ministry of Health. We are supporting the Ministry of Health in responding to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (Case 13.524), where Guatemala must demonstrate progress on deinstitutionalization and safeguards for human rights. Together, these efforts aim to shift Guatemala toward a rights-based model of care, addressing key human rights issues and creating a replicable model for mental health law and deinstitutionalization across Latin America. We recognize that other countries in the region have led mental health reform efforts for decades. Our goal is to learn from their experiences, integrate their lessons into Guatemala’s reform process, and establish collaborations that strengthen regional exchange and collective progress. Through this approach, we aim to contribute to the growing body of Latin American evidence on rights-based mental health systems.
https://med.stanford.edu/psychiatry/special-initiatives/globalmh.html
Supporting Trauma-informed Approaches to Accountability for Crimes Committed by the Islamic State; UNITAD
For five years, our program has made deep inroads with the United Nations Investigative Team to Promote Accountability for Crimes Committed by Da’esh/ISIL (UNITAD) to promote a trauma-informed investigative process. Through training, education, and mentorship, we have supported UNITAD’s development into a trauma-informed practice that not only incorporates the promising approaches to working with traumatized witnesses, but also coordinated and built capacity for previously unavailable trauma mental health treatment in Iraq. This resulted in the publication of both a field guide and reference manual on trauma-informed investigations. Furthermore, this collective work established a new paradigm in trauma-informed investigations. The field guide is available for download at the following link: https://humanrights.stanford.edu/sites/humanrights/files/media/file/2104429-trauma-informed_investigations_field_guide_web_0_0.pdf
Humanitarian Parole Project for Survivors of Gender-Based Violence (Haiti)
The Program has collaborated with international human rights lawyers to provide psychiatric evaluations and expert opinions in immigration legal processes invoking mental health outcomes as a basis for humanitarian parole. More than 60 individuals from post-earthquake Haiti have won humanitarian parole on the basis of trauma-related mental health outcomes.
Safe Relocation for Refugees and Other Vulnerable Survivors of Human Rights Violations through Immigration Protections (Middle East)
Based on the successes of the Humanitarian Parole Project in Haiti, the Lab has collaborated with international human rights lawyers to provide psychiatric evaluations and expert opinions aimed at immigration courts and policymakers in an effort to assist with the safe relocation of survivors from the civil war in Syria. The project centers on the Middle East, with Syrian and Iraqi victims of war crimes as the major focus. Many survivors have won humanitarian visas into the EU or other countries, and out of unsafe circumstances.