to identify, assess, and manage clients, with an emphasis on counselling and problem-solving. A basic
manual is available (10), and all trainees will receive regular supervision.
The professional staff of AMANI will provide this supervision, as well as being the first referral route and
the consultants of first choice for the care-givers. The basic skills training will be an important prerequisite for more specialised training in the management of survivors.
2. Torture survivors:
Further training in the management of torture survivors and the disappeared will follow the basic skills
training. This will involve training in more detailed assessment of forensic issues, advanced counselling
skills, and group therapy skills. A manual for this phase has been completed(11).
3. Group therapy and community liaison:
Since it is likely that the morbid population is very large, it will be important that the community take an
active a part as is possible in the work. Thus, it will be important to create support groups and
community bodies. This will require the care-givers to acquire skills in group work and community action.
This will require some skills training, and some of this will be given in the earlier stages of the
programme.
However, the care-givers will need to develop methods to involve the community in both care-giving and
organization, and it must be a goal to hand over the programme to a large extent to the community.
4. Care for caregivers:
This is a crucial component in dealing with survivors of repressive violence, but is usually either not
included in a programme or is only applied when programmes are well-established and care-givers are
beginning to experience difficulties. The desirable approach is to recognise at the outset that care-givers
will experience problems, both because most care-givers are former survivors themselves, which is the
case with most community-based approaches, or because the professional care-givers underestimate the
powerful counter-transferential effects of working with survivors of torture.