Less Fearful, More Active: The National Expert Group

Happy to be back -- a student at Derince Primary School, Gölcük.
Photograph by Rana Mullan © UNICEF Turkey 2001

The National Expert Group

When the National Expert Group (NET) was constituted in support of the project, Turkey had never before seen such a wide-ranging collaboration between the professions. Members discovered resources of knowledge and experience which hitherto had been outside of their professional remit. With so many professionals, of various disciplines, working together it was, perhaps, inevitable that many would find it as difficult to work in a team setting, to start with, as they would ultimately find the process beneficial. Away from the universities, for instance, academics were appreciated for their contributions in the field. Counsellors, psychiatrists and psychologists learned more about the inter-dependence of their professions and improved their practical functions as a result. When academics found that their commitment to the programme was potentially compromised with the resumption of the academic year, universities and other institutions proved to be tremendously helpful in allowing leave or arranging sabbaticals to facilitate their involvement in the programme.

The theory of the potential effects of trauma on the individual was well understood between the various academic institutions and professions involved. Through the Psycho-social School Project, however, there were many practical opportunities to study these effects, to measure the effectiveness of the interventions and to refine the methods used to deal with them.

We learned to work together. Coming from such disparate backgrounds, it was not easy, in the beginning, to share our expertise. But the survivors’ needs were extremely urgent and thus co-operation was vital to the project’s success so we quickly learned to combine our various disciplines more efficiently.

The experiences of the NET team have led to many proposals for improvements within Turkey’s educational system such as the implementation of courses in trauma theory and trauma counselling for instance. The helping professions will endeavour to fill the gaps in knowledge and remedial practice which were exposed by experience in the aftermath of the disaster. In this light, the expert team reported improved understanding about the timing and intervention procedures following a major traumatic event.

The fully illustrated text of Less Fearful, More Active is also available for download in print-ready pdf format. [PDF 1.25MB]

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