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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Elizabeth S. Barnert, MD/MS candidate, UC Berkeley-UCSF Joint Medical Program, UC Berkeley, Division of Health and Medical Sciences, 570 University Hall #1190, Berkeley, CA 94720-1190, 510 642-5479, ebarnert@berkeley.edu

The goal of this ethnographic study was to gain insight into the process of reunification of “disappeared” Salvadoran children (now young adults) with their biological families. These “disappeared” children were forcibly separated from their families during El Salvador's twelve-year civil war and were later reunited with them following the Peace Accords in 1992. Ethnographic fieldwork consisted of fieldnotes and semi-structured interviews with “disappeared” young adults who had been reunited with their families. These data were then woven together into a written, non-fiction account of the experiences of the “disappeared” young adults. Their voices speak of their struggles to understand their own identity and to find their place within their biological and adoptive families. Their compelling story elucidates how their violent separation from their families as infants and young children continues to affect their everyday lives.

Learning Objectives:

(
• Identify facilitators and barriers to the reunification of "disappeared" young adults with their biological families. (
• Articulate a community-based intervention to address three common barriers to reunification. (
• Develop a policy-level intervention to promote the mental health of families separated by war.

Keywords: Latino Mental Health, Human Rights

Related Web page: www.probusqueda.org.sv/ (website of collaborating NGO)

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No